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COLOR 

AND  ITS  APPLICATION 
TO  PRINTING 


COLOR 

AND  ITS  APPLICATION 
TO  PRINTING 


By 
E-C' ANDREWS 


PUBLISHED    BY 
THE   INLAND    PRINTER   COMPANY 
CHICAGO 


Copyright,  1911, 
by  K.  C.  Andrews. 


THE  HENRY  O.  SIIEl'ARU  CO.,  CRIN'TERS,  CHICAGO. 


PUBLISHERS'  PREFACE. 

"  Color  and  Its  Application  to  Printing "  appeared 
serially  in  The  Inland  Printer  during  1910  and  1911, 
under  the  title  "  Scientific  Color  in  Printing."  The  careful 
research  and  accuracy  of  statement  evidenced  in  these  arti- 
cles received  the  warm  commendation  of  the  most  eminent 
authorities  in  America  on  the  problems  of  color. 

The  author,  Mr.  E.  C.  Andrews,  brings  a  special  fitness 
and  experience  to  the  work  he  has  undertaken.  A  student 
at  Princeton  and  a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
Mr.  Andrews  specialized  in  chemistry,  and,  though  not  offi- 
cially on  the  faculty  roll,  was  for  a  time  in  effect  assistant 
instructor  in  chemistry  in  the  University  of  Chicago.  Enter- 
ing commercial  life,  he  was  chemist  for  the  Corn  Products 
Refining  Company,  and  thereafter  connected  himself  with 
Philip  Ruxton,  Inc.,  of  which  organization  he  is  the  second 
vice-president. 

Mr.  Andrews  has  been  unusually  successful  in  simplify- 
ing the  processes  of  arrival  at  color  selection.  His  specialty 
has  brought  him  in  immediate  contact  with  the  difficulties 
that  commonly  beset  the  printer  in  obtaining  cohesion  and 
contrast  in  colorwork.  In  this  way,  the  present  work  is  not 
theoretical  in  its  application,  but  eminently  a  practical  work, 
in  which  all  that  has  been  set  down  in  this  connection  has 
been  proved  and  tested. 

The  student  of  color  will  find  in  these  pages  foundation 
principles  accepted  by  modern  authority.  The  analyses  of  the 
phenomena  of  the  disintegration  of  white  light  into  its  color 
components  and  their  representation  by  pigmentation  open 
up  a  field  of  study  which  is  not  only  deeply  interesting  but  of 
the  greatest  value  and  importance  to  all  manufacturers  and 
users  of  color  in  the  arts. 

THE  INLAND  PRINTER  COMPANY, 
Publishers,  Chicago. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

There  is  a  story  about  a  Chinaman  who  lost  his  dog  and 
reported  the  fact  to  the  police.  By  means  of  an  interpreter 
the  police  official  asked  the  color  of  the  dog.  Gesticulations 
and  five  minutes  of  wonderful  gutterals  followed.  "  Well, 
what  on  earth  did  he  say?"  asked  the  official.  "Yellow," 
replied  the  interpreter.  In  the  description  of  colors  even 
the  master  of  diction  may  be  compared  to  the  Chinaman. 
The  variety  of  terms,  in  fact,  the  almost  individual  use  of 
terms,  and  the  desirability  of  reaching  more  uniformity  are 
too  self-evident  to  need  comment.  If  this  book  helps  the  user 
of  color,  whether  he  be  artist  or  printer,  to  take  a  step 
forward  in  that  direction  it  will  have  served  its  purj)ose. 

To  A.  H.  McQuilkin,  Arthur  S.  Allen  and  John  M.  Tuttle 
the  author  is  indebted  for  the  personal  encouragement  and 
inspiration  which  have  placed  his  investigations  in  concrete 
form.  From  Henry  Gordon  Gale,  of  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago, I  received  assistance  on  the  subject  of  light;  from 
Walter  S.  Sargent,  of  the  University  of  Chicago;  Henry 
Turner  Bailey,  editor  of  the  School  Arts  Book,  and  A.  H. 
Munsell,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  the  work  received  the 
benefit  of  their  long  and  rich  experiences  in  the  practical 
application  of  color  and  elucidation  of  color  theory.  Grate- 
ful acknowledgment  is  also  made  to  Fred  S.  Bertsch  and 
Oswald  Cooper  for  the  title-page  and  cover-design;  to 
August  Petrtyl  for  painting  of  spectra  by  means  of  a  direct 
vision  prism  spectroscope;  to  L.  O.  Griffith  for  conventional- 
ized flower-design,  illustrating  value  arrangements  on  page 
52,  and  to  F.  J.  Trezise,  the  instructor  in  the  I.  T.  U.  Course 
of  Printing,  for  advice  and  assistance  in  manifold  ways.  In 
a  work  of  this  character  it  is  difficult  to  give  acknowledg- 
ment for  aid  to  authors  where  the  actual  verbiage  has  not 
been  directly  quoted.  The  works  consulted  in  this  connec- 
tion, and  to  which  the  author  is  indebted  in  elucidating 
many  problems,  are:  "A  First  Course  in  Physics,"  Millikan 
&  Gale;  "Text  Book  of  Color,"  Ogden  N.  Rood;  "Colour," 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

A.  H.  Church ;  "  Color  Harmony  and  Contrast,"  James  Ward ; 
"A  Theory  of  Pure  Design,"  Denman  W.  Ross ;  "  The  Prin- 
ciples of  Design,"  Ernest  A.  Batchelder;  "A  Color  Notation," 
A.  H.  Munsell. 

It  is  important  for  the  reader  to  consider  that  this  work 
is  not  designed  to  take  the  place  of  a  ready-reference  chart, 
by  which  he  or  she  may  determine  at  once  any  color  combina- 
tion ;  but  is  intended  to  give  a  course  of  instruction  in  color 
which  the  reader  must  study  and  thus  build  into  his  own  per- 
ceptions. The  works  which  have  been  referred  to  will  be 
found  of  the  greatest  value  by  the  earnest  student,  whose 
investigations  and  notes  have  been  arranged  for  by  the  inser- 
tion of  a  number  of  blank  leaves  in  the  back  of  the  book. 

E.  C.  ANDREWS. 


CONTENTS. 


chapter.  page. 

Publishers'  Preface 5 

Author's  Preface 7 

I.    The  Three  Attributes  of  Color 13 

II.    Light  and  the  Spectrum 20 

III.  The  Process  of  Color  Perception 33 

IV.  False  and  Correct  Color  Balance  —  Hue 40 

V.     Value 48 

VI.     Chroma  and  the  Union  of  Hue,  Value  and  Chroma  in 

THE  Color  Solid 62 

VII.     The  Color  Solid  as  a  Basis  for  Color  Combinations.  ...  69 

VIII.    The  Law  of  Modification  of  Colors  Due  to  Opposition  . .  75 

IX.    Harmony  by  Balanced  Contrasts — Sequences — Analo- 
gies OF  Hue,  Value  and  Chroma 90 

X.     The  Weighing  and  Mixing  of  Inks 97 

XI.    Color  Matching ; -. . . .  108 

XII.    Pressroom  Difficulties 114 

Classification  of  Typical  Color  Combinations 74 

Table      I.     Diagram  of  Possible  Color  Values 58 

Table    II.     Enlarged  Diagram  of  Possible  Color  Values 95 

Table  III.    Comparison  of  Parts  (Metric  System)  with  Pounds 

Avoirdupois  101 

Table  IV.    Conversion  of  Ounces  and  Fractional  Parts  of  an 

Ounce  into  Decimal  Parts  of  a  Pound 101 


LIST  OF  ILIASTRAITONS. 


Plate  I  (frontispiece).  Fig.  A,  Solar  Spectrum  from  Diffraction 
Grating.  Fig.  B,  Solar  Spectrum  from  Prism.  Fig.  C,  The  Five 
Fundamentals  —  Red,  Yellow,  Green,  Blue,  and  Purple.  Fig.  D, 
Correct  Primaries  and  Secondaries.  Fig.  E,  Incorrect  Primaries 
and  Secondaries. 

Plate  II  (opposite  page  47).  Fig.  A,  The  Five  Colors  in  Middle 
Chroma  at  Values  of  70,  50  and  30.    Fig.  B,  Middle-value  Colors. 

Plate  III  (opposite  page  64).  Chroma  in  Five  of  the  Fundamentals 
at  Values  Where  Each  Color  Reaches  Its  Maxima  of  Chroma. 

Fig.  page. 

1.  Wave  Form  of  Light 21 

2.  Coincidence  of  Two  Wave-trains 22 

3.  Neutralization  of  Two  Wave-trains 22 

4.  Apparatus  for  Producing  Interference 23 

5.  Diagrammatic    View    of   the    Wave-lengths    of    Red,    Yellow, 

Green,  Blue  and  Violet 24 

6.  The  Dispersion  of  White  Light  into  Its  Elements 27 

7.  Methods  of  Separating  a  Given  Color  in  the  Spectrum 28 

8.  Method  of  Reuniting  the  Colors  into  White  Light 30 

9.  Method  of  Adding  White  Light  to  the  Spectrum  Hues 31 

10.  Illusion  of  Length 33 

11.  Muller-Lyer  Illusion 34 

12.  Zollner  Illusion 34 

13.  Poggendorff  Illusion 35 

14.  Diagrammatic  Section  of  the  Human  Eye 35 

15.  Diagrammatic  Section  of  the  Retina 36 

16.  Circular  Disks  With  Radial  Slits 42 

17.  Milton  Bradley  Rotating  Apparatus 43 

18.  The  Decimal  Circuit  of  Color 46 

19.  Decimal  Value  Scale,  Neutral  Axis 49 

20.  Front  View  of  the  Munsell  Photometer 50 

21.  Rear  View  of  the  Munsell  Photometer 51 

22.  Three  Values  in  Two  Arrangements 52 

23.  Use  of  the  Correct  Initial 54 

24.  Use  of  Incorrect  Initial 55 

25.  Decimal-value  Scale  Balanced  on  Middle  Value 56 

26.  The  Color  Solid 67 

27.  Contrasts  of  Five  Values  in  Two  Arrangements 70 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE. 

28.  Red  and  Its  Analogous  Colors  in  Relation  to  Its  Complement 

Blue-green  and  Its  Analogous  Colors 76 

29.  Yellow-red  and  Its  Analogous  Colors  in  Relation  to  Its  Com- 

plement Blue  and  Its  Analogous  Colors 77 

30.  Yellow  and  Its  Analogous  Colors  in  Relation  to  Its  Comple- 

ment Purple-blue  and  Its  Analogous  Colors 78 

31.  Green-yellow  and  Its  Analogous  Colors  in  Relation  to  Its  Com- 

plement Purple  and  Its  Analogous  Colors 79 

32.  Green  and  Its  Analogous  Colors  in  Relation  to  Its  Comple- 

ment Red-purple  and  Its  Analogous  Colors 80 

33.  Values  in  Contact  and  Separated 82 

34.  The  Effects  of  the  Opposition  of  Green  on  the  Other  Colors.  .  84 

35.  Square  and  Strip  Used  for  Studying  the  Effects  of  Opposition  85 

36.  Three-color  Combinations  by  Balanced  Contrasts 91 

37.  An  Analogy  of  Value  Converged  Toward  ^liddle  Value 92 

38.  A  Blue  Accent  or  Analogy  of  Hue 94 

39.  Equipment  for  Color  Experiments 99 

40.  Suggestion  for  Formula  Slip 100 

41.  A  Decimal  Value  Scale  by  Weight 105 

42.  Comparison  of  the  Twelve-step   Sequence  with   the   Decimal 

Sequence 109 

43.  Half-tone  from  Perfectly  Coated  Side  of  Sheet 114 

44.  Half-tone  from  Imperfectly  Coated  Side  of  Sheet 114 

45.  Half-tone  Black  "  Picking  " 115 

46.  Half-tone  Black  Reduced  with  Soft  Half-tone 116 

47.  Half-tone  Black  Softened  with  Reducing  Varnish 117 


PLATE  I. 

Flo.   A.     Solar  spectrum  from  a  diffraction  grating. 

Fio.   B.     Solar  spectrum  from  a  prism. 

Fio.  C.  The  maxima  or  highest  chroma  of  the  five  fundamental  colors,  equi- 
distant in  hue. 

FiQ.  D.  The  correct  primaries  —  red,  green  and  purple-blue.  (This  color  is  an 
ultramarme  made  from  lapis-lazull,  also  called  violet-blue.)  Secondaries  or  comple- 
nuntaries  — yellow,  blue-green  and  purple.     Complementary  colors  are  opposite. 

Fio.  E.  False  color-balance,  based  on  the  old  Brewster  theory,  which  gives  the 
jirimaries  as  red,  yellow  and  blue ;    secondaries  as  orange,  g^-een  and  purple. 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION 
TO  PRINTING 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  THREE  ATTRIBUTES  OF  COLOR. 

]~71EW  printers  have  had  instruction  in  either  drawing 
^  or  painting,  and  yet  the  successful  color-printer  of 
to-day  —  the  man  who  gives  the  advertiser  something 
more  than  a  low  price  —  has  absorbed  unconsciously  a  con- 
siderable knowledge  of  both  these  arts.  In  drawing,  we 
think  of  lines  and  outlines  —  good  type  and  rule  composition 
printed  in  black.  In  painting,  we  think  of  areas  or  spots 
first  of  all,  and  of  the  composition  afterward  —  a  booklet 
cover  in  color.  Composition  in  painting  includes  the  posi- 
tion, the  size  (the  artists'  word  for  size  is  measure)  and 
shape  of  the  objects  represented.  In  short,  composition  is 
the  way  a  given  space  is  divided  up. 

Let  us  forget  composition  for  the  present.  What  is  a 
spot  of  color?  In  printing  it  is  the  effect  produced  on  the 
eye  by  any  pigment  or  mixture  of  pigments.  Royal  purple  is 
a  distinctive  spot  of  color,  royal  purple  plus  white  another, 
royal  purple  with  black  added  to  it  a  third,  etc.  In  analyzing 
any  spot  of  color  two  things  are  noticed.  First,  the  quantity 
of  light  in  it,  or,  in  other  words,  how  much  it  reflects  light. 
This  is  called  by  artists  its  "  value."  If  this  definition  is  new 
to  you,  stop  a  moment  and  memorize  it.  Second,  we  notice 
the  kind  of  light  in  it  —  its  color;  and  then  we  notice  the 
intensity  of  the  color.  If  it  is  bright  and  stands  out  like  ver- 
milion we  say  it  is  a  very  intense  color.  Munsell  calls  this 
quality  of  color  its  chroma,  a  more  exact  term  than  intensity. 
Later  on  we  shall  take  up  these  terms  more  in  detail. 

In  white  we  have  the  greatest  quantity  of  light  of  all  pig- 
ments, the  highest  of  all  values.    Notice  the  amount  of  light 

13 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

in  a  freshly  plastered  room  and  then  go  into  the  same  room 
after  the  walls  are  tinted  or  papered.  Most  printing,  how- 
ever, is  done  on  white  paper,  and,  therefore,  white  ink  would 
show  no  contrast.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  black  is  used  in 
printing  more  than  any  other  pigment.  It  is  the  greatest 
contrast  to  white,  reflects  the  least  quantity  of  light  and  is 
the  lowest  of  all  values. 

When  we  say  a  color  reflects  light,  there  are  a  number  of 
points  to  be  considered.  If  the  ink  is  opaque  we  have  one 
kind  of  reflection.  If  semi-opaque  another,  and,  when  trans- 
parent, still  another.  Also  gloss  makes  a  difference,  and 
although  gloss  inks  are  much  sought  after  by  the  printer  and 
advertiser,  they  are  not  often  advisable.  It  is  true  that  at 
the  right  angle  they  reflect  light  in  large  quantity,  but,  at 
another  angle,  gloss  inks  often  glare.  Take  some  job  that 
you  consider  fine  in  this  particular  and  look  at  it  every  day. 
You  will  soon  tire  of  the  gloss.  Imagine  one  of  your  living 
rooms  done  in  a  gloss  calcimine !  The  point  to  be  considered 
is  whether  the  color-scheme  is  to  be  used  for  advertising 
matter  which  is  thrown  away  after  reading  or  on  the  cover 
of  a  standard  catalogue  which  is  used  for  years.  In  the 
latter  case,  much  may  be  learned  from  the  mural  painters. 
Such  a  composition  should  be  restful,  with  little  action,  and 
the  figures  should  be  flat.  The  colors  should  be  subdued  and 
not  too  warm  in  tone. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  gloss  so  many  three-color 
printers  seek  to  get  in  their  reproductions  is  exactly  what 
the  artist  in  painting  the  original  picture  in  oil  endeavors  to 
avoid.  He  depends  for  his  effect  not  on  reflected  light,  some 
of  which,  however,  is  bound  to  reach  the  eye,  but  upon  the 
light  which  is  reflected  in  a  diffused  way  and,  generally,  has 
penetrated  some  distance  into  the  pigments.  In  reproducing 
water-color  sketches  we  must  try  to  avoid  gloss,  but  it  is  prac- 
tically impossible  to  exactly  match  a  water-color  in  printing- 
ink,  although  the  pigments  in  the  two  colors  might  be  iden- 
tical. This  is  because  the  varnish  medium  of  printing-ink 
always  will  show  more  gloss  than  the  water  medium,  and, 
therefore,  reflect  the  light  in  a  different  manner.  Added  to 
this  is  the  fact  that  the  water-color  is  often  carried  on  very 

14 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

much  heavier  than  the  color  can  be  printed  and  maintain  an 
even  impression. 

I  spoke  of  the  opacity  or  transparency  of  an  ink  making 
a  difference  in  the  kind  of  light  it  reflects,  but  said  nothing 
of  the  color  or  the  coating  of  the  "  white  "  stock  upon  which 
it  is  printed.  This  is  a  point  not  thoroughly  understood  by 
the  majority  of  printers.  There  are  certain  light  reds  which 
show  an  extraordinary  brightness  and  beautiful  undertone 
on  cream  or  "natural  white"  enameled  papers,  while  on 
paper  slightly  toned  with  blue  the  beautiful  effect  is  gone. 
"  Natural "  was  the  name  originally  given  to  untoned  paper, 
which  is  yellowish  in  cast,  but  to-day  both  "natural"  and 
cream-white  stock  is  toned  slightly  red.  When  you  expect  to 
use  a  light  red  or  Persian  orange  for  initials  and  decora- 
tions, always  insist  on  the  red-toned  stock,  even  if  furnished 
by  your  customer.  As  the  colors  mentioned  are  the  proper 
colors  to  be  used  with  black  half-tones  and  type,  such  jobs 
are  not  infrequent.  The  blue  toner  is  also  detrimental  to  all 
light  tints  containing  red  or  yellow,  especially  if  they  are 
made  with  a  transparent  base. 

Every  printer  knows  how  hard  it  is  to  match  an  engra- 
ver's proof.  This  is  because  the  proof-paper  has  a  greater 
luminosity  than  the  No.  2  enamel  or  S.  &  S.  C.  that  you  are 
forced  to  use  on  the  job,  and  also  because  the  surface  of  your 
stock  would  "  pick  "  with  the  heavy  engravers'  proving  inks, 
even  if  you  could  afford  to  use  them.  When  you  get  to 
No.  2  enamel  you  have  more  to  contend  with  than  merely 
blue  toner.  The  lesser  luminosity  is  due  to  impurities  in  the 
stock  and  in  the  coating,  which  you  can  not  cover  up.  Your 
ink  is  not  so  saturated  in  color  and  will  be  affected  by  the 
color  of  the  stock,  and  also  the  stock  about  the  printed  matter 
will  show  less  contrast  to  the  ink  itself.  When  you  have  a 
No.  2  stock,  the  surface  of  which  will  stand  heavy  inks,  part 
of  this  deficiency  in  luminosity  may  be  overcome  by  using 
cover-inks,  but  the  highest  luminosity  in  most  colors  is 
obtained  on  No.  1  "natural  white,"  with  inks  of  a  lake 
nature,  where  the  undertone  will  reflect  the  purity  of  the 
stock.  Such  conditions  somewhat  approximate  an  engra- 
ver's proof,  but  let  us  hope  that  the  day  will  come  when  the 

15 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

engraver  will  pull  his  proofs  on  the  same  stock  the  printer 
expects  to  use  and  with  inks  of  a  price  consistent  with  the 
job.  If  he  must  use  expensive  paper  to  show  that  the  cuts  are 
perfect  let  him  pull  these  proofs  in  black  and  furnish  his 
customer  the  color  progressives  on  ordinary  stock.  Then, 
and  not  until  then,  will  the  printer  have  a  fair  show  when 
dealing  with  a  customer  who  has  ordered  his  plates  direct 
from  an  engraver. 

The  coating  of  stock  is  the  cause  of  many  pressroom  diffi- 
culties, and,  while  the  subject  of  this  book  is  not  the  chem- 
istry of  inks  or  of  paper,  a  little  digression  in  this  chapter 
may  not  be  out  of  place.  Coatings  for  enamel  paper  contain 
glue,  clay,  blanc  fixe,  satin  white,  etc.,  each  manufacturer 
having  special  secret  formulas  of  his  own.  In  the  first  two 
items  there  is  a  great  chance  of  variance.  Glue  runs  from 
7  cents  a  pound  (in  quantities)  to  the  French  glue  at  40 
cents.  Just  how  much  increasing  the  price  would  mean 
increasing  the  quality  it  would  be  hard  for  any  one  not  a 
practical  paper  manufacturer  to  say.  Clay  is  a  general 
name  given  impure  varieties  of  aluminum  silicate,  and  ordi- 
nary clay  often  contains  calcium  carbonate,  magnesium  car- 
bonate and  iron  hydroxids.  The  purest  form  of  clay  found 
in  nature  is  kaolin,  and  from  native  clay  to  the  choicest 
imported  there  is  a  wide  range  of  price  and  quality.  In 
England  the  fine  clay  is  found  almost  exclusively  in  the 
county  of  Cornwall.  It  is  probably  a  safe  statement  to  say 
that  imported  clay  is  used  by  the  leading  paper  manufac- 
turers of  the  United  States  on  all  of  their  coated  papers. 
Blanc  fixe  is  artificial  barium  sulphate,  and  satin  white  an 
artificial  white  pigment  consisting  of  a  mixture  of  calcium 
sulphate  and  aluminum  hydroxid.  When  you  consider  that 
these  ingredients  as  well  as  others  are  mixed  in  various  pro- 
portions, and  competition  Is  making  a  constant  demand  for  a 
satisfactory  coating  at  a  low  cost,  is  it  a  wonder  that  the 
printer  occasionally  has  trouble  fitting  his  inks  to  a  given 
stock.  The  writer  noticed  during  the  extreme  cold  weather 
of  a  recent  winter  many  instances  where  the  coating  of  the 
stock  seemed  to  "  powder  off  "  and  the  "  softest "  inks  would 
pick.     It  would  be  an  interesting  experiment  to  artificially 

16 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO  PRINTING. 

freeze  satisfactory  stock  and  see  whether  it  were  possible  to 
cause  the  coating  to  disintegrate.  The  point  I  wish  to  bring 
out  is  that  the  printer  should  not  always  ascribe  his  troubles 
to  "  the  ink  not  being  the  same  as  last." 

Much  is  being  done  by  the  various  clubs  throughout  the 
country  in  educating  the  printer  to  what  printing  costs,  but, 
after  all,  is  this  not  merely  an  analysis  of  competition  of 
price,  a  competition  in  which  there  is  no  bottom?  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  the  competition  of  ability,  in  which  there 
is  no  limit.  Why  does  your  customer  want  to  see  proofs  — 
why  does  he  revise,  and  refuse  to  0.  K.  the  original  layout? 
Why  does  he  deal  directly  with  an  advertising  man,  an 
artist  or  an  engraver,  and  require  you  to  submit  your  ideas 
to  a  middle  man  ?  It  is  because  nine  out  of  ten  printers  are 
not  seeking  more  than  to  rent  printing  machinery.  A  promi- 
nent man,  who  has  been  connected  with  printing  interests 
for  more  than  thirty  years,  recently  made  the  statement  that 
he  could  teach  the  average  bright  boy  to  set  type  in  three 
months'  time.  Setting  type  is  not  what  pays,  it  is  how  it  is 
set.  What  you  say,  how  you  say  it,  what  stock  you  select, 
what  colors  you  use,  and,  above  all,  whether  you  show  a 
creative  touch,  a  distinctive  and  personal  element  in  your 
work.  This  creative  element  can  not  be  cultivated  by  refer- 
ring to  tables,  copied  out  of  "  Chevreul,"  and  no  set  rule  can 
be  laid  down  for  the  best  combination,  as  every  color-scheme 
must  be  selected  with  regard  to  many  requirements.  To 
create,  one  must  master,  and  to  know  color  from  the  scien- 
tific standpoint  often  enables  us  to  surprise  even  the  artist 
at  the  grasp  we  have  of  the  problems  he  solves  with  "  feel- 
ing." When  you  can  show  a  customer  what  he  "ought  to 
have,"  to  advertise  effectively,  your  profit  will  not  be  divided 
with  the  middle  man,  and,  once  in  his  confidence,  even  his 
office-blanks  will  pay  a  fair  profit. 

It  seems  to  me,  therefore,  that  a  large  number  of  print- 
ers ought  to  be  interested,  not  only  in  a  few  simple  rules  for 
obtaining  color  harmony,  but  in  the  principal  facts  of  the 
physical  nature  of  light  —  how  it  travels,  the  difference  in 
wave-lengths,  which  give  rise  to  various  color  sensations, 
and  the  absorption,  reflection  and  refraction  of  light  on  dif- 

17 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

ferent  surfaces.  It  is  worth  while  to  know  something  of  the 
eye  and  color-vision,  and  something  of  the  chemical  nature 
of  pigments.  There  are  many  points  about  the  body,  tack, 
opacity  or  transparency  of  an  ink  that  are  important  for  a 
printer  to  know,  and,  last  of  all,  is  the  problem  of  harmoniz- 
ing and  grouping  the  various  colors  and  their  tints  and 
shades.  I  repeat,  there  is  no  question  but  that  the  average 
printer  can  acquire  a  valuable  practical  knowledge  of  color 
harmonizing  from  scientific  sources.  Results  without  rea- 
sons save  some  reading,  but  it  is  easier  to  apply  principles 
once  understood,  than  to  hunt  for  an  example  that  just  fits 
the  piece  of  work  under  consideration. 

In  the  following  chapters  I  shall  take  up  the  divisions  of 
our  subject  in  the  order  mentioned,  and  review  them  briefly, 
laying  especial  emphasis  on  recent  theories.  First  of  all, 
let  us  define  our  color  terms  more  accurately. 

We  stated  that,  in  analyzing  any  spot  of  color,  two  things 
are  noticed :  (1)  The  quantity  of  light  and  (2)  the  kind  of 
light,  which  may  be  either  strong  or  weak.  Whether  we 
recognize  the  quantity  or  quality  of  light  first,  depends  some- 
what on  the  individual  color-sense,  and  whether  the  color  is 
intense  or  weak.  A  child  notices  the  color,  the  kind  of  light, 
before  he  recognizes  the  quantity  of  light  (the  value) .  Last 
of  all,  he  learns  to  notice  the  intensity  of  the  color  (the 
chroma).  We  can  readily  see  that,  in  order  to  describe  a 
color,  we  must  mention  three  qualities :  the  color,  the  value, 
and  the  intensity  (chroma).  Notice  that  we  are  forced  to 
speak  of  the  "color  of  a  color."  To  avoid  ambiguity  an 
exact  term  is  necessary,  and  the  best  word  that  we  can  use 
in  describing  the  kind  of  light  in  a  spot  of  color  is  "hue." 
Please  notice  the  following  definitions  from  the  Century 
dictionary : 

Hue:  "  Color;  specifically  and  technically,  distinc- 
tive quality  of  color  in  an  object  or  on  a  surface; 
the  respect  in  which  red,  yellow,  green,  blue,  etc., 
differ  one  from  another;  that  in  which  colors  of 
equal  luminosity  and  chroma  may  differ." 

Value:  "  In  painting  and  the  allied  arts,  relation  of 
one  object,  part,  or  atmospheric  plane  of  a  pic- 

18 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

ture  to  the  others  with  reference   to  light  and 
shade,  the  idea  of  hue  being  abstracted." 
Chroma:    "  The  degree  of  departure  of  a  color  sen- 
sation from  that  of  white  or  gray;    the  intensity 
of  distinctive  hue;    color  intensity." 

Henceforth,  I  shall  use  the  terms  "  hue,"  "  value "  and 
"  chroma  "  in  describing  any  color.  They  may  be  called  the 
three  dimensions  of  color,  as,  by  omitting  any  one  of  these 
three  qualities,  we  leave  the  color  undefined. 


19 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


CHAPTER  II. 

LIGHT  AND   THE   SPECTRUM.* 

IN  studying  the  laws  of  color  we  must  first  of  all  distin- 
guish between  color  as  the  physicist  describes  it  and  color 

as  we  experience  it  —  between  objective  and  subjective 
color.  For  example,  color  as  we  see  it  is  not  a  form  of  vibra- 
tion, while  color  to  the  physicist  is  a  form  of  wave-motion 
easily  changed  into  other  wave-motions,  such  as  those  of 
heat.  Our  sensation  of  color,  therefore,  is  not  a  copy  of  an 
external  fact,  and  we  must  not  confuse  the  laws  of  one  with 
the  laws  of  the  other. 

In  seeking  for  a  basis  for  our  color  theory  we  naturally 
turn  to  the  spectrum;  but,  first  of  all,  it  is  best  to  know 
something  of  the  physical  properties  of  light  itself.  In 
"  Light  Waves  and  Their  Uses,"  Prof.  A.  A.  Michelson,  of 
the  department  of  physics,  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
who  won  the  Nobel  prize  for  his  work  on  light,  gives  the 
following  illustration  of  wave-motion  : 

"  Doubtless  there  are  but  few  who  have  not  watched  with 
interest  the  circular  waves  produced  by  a  stone  cast  into  a 
still  pond  of  water,  the  ever-widening  circles  going  farther 
and  farther  from  the  center  of  disturbance,  until  they  are 
lost  in  the  distance  or  break  on  the  shore.  Even  if  we  had 
no  knowledge  of  the  original  disturbance,  its  character,  in  a 
general  way,  might  be  correctly  inferred  from  the  waves. 
For  instance,  the  direction  and  distance  of  the  source  can  be 
determined  with  considerable  accuracy  by  drawing  two  lines 
perpendicular  to  the  front  of  the  wave ;  the  source  would  lie 
at  their  intersection.  The  size  of  the  waves  will  give  infor- 
mation concerning  the  size  of  the  object  thrown.     If  the 


*  Note. — •  While  it  is  the  intention  in  these  chapters  to  present  such,  subjects  as  light, 
the  spectrum  and  the  process  of  color  perception,  in  a  popular  style,  it  is  impossible  to 
explain  the  underlying  laws  without  reference  to  scientific  experiments.  If  the  individual 
reader  is  not  interested  in  these  subjects  he  may  pass  over  Chapters  II  and  III. 

20 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

waves  continue  to  beat  regularly  on  the  shore,  the  disturb- 
ance is  continuous  and  regular;  and,  if  regular,  the  fre- 
quency (that  is,  the  number  of  waves  per  second)  deter- 
mines whether  the  disturbance  is  due  to  the  splash  of  oars, 
to  the  paddles  of  a  steamer,  or  to  the  wings  of  an  insect 
struggling  to  escape. 

"  In  a  precisely  similar  manner,  though  usually  without 
conscious  reasoning  about  the  matter  on  our  part,  the  sound- 
waves which  reach  the  ear  give  information  regarding  the 
source  of  the  sound.  Such  information  may  be  classified 
as  follows : 

1.  Direction  (not  precise). 

2.  Magnitude  (loudness). 

3.  Frequency  (pitch). 

4.  Form  (character). 

"  Light  gives  precisely  the  same  kinds  of  information, 
and  hence  it  is  only  natural  to  infer  that  light  also  is  a  wave- 
motion.    We  know,  in  fact,  that  is  so." 


Fig.  1.  shows  a  wave-form  illustrating  the  way  light 
travels.  The  amplitude  of  the  wave  is  the  distance  from 
the  highest  point  of  the  crest  or  the  lowest  point  of  the 
trough  to  the  position  of  rest,  which  is  shown  as  a  dotted 
line  drawn  through  the  middle  of  the  curve.  The  period  of 
the  vibration  is  the  time  it  takes  for  one  particle  to  execute 
one  complete  vibration,*  that  is,  in  the  case  of  a  cork  floating 
on  water,  it  is  the  time  it  takes  for  the  cork  to  drop  from  the 
highest  point  of  the  crest  of  a  wave  to  the  lowest  point  of 
the  trough  and  to  return  to  the  highest  point  of  the  crest 
again.  This  vibration  is  up  and  down  and  not  along  the 
wave.  The  wave-length  is  the  distance  between  two  con- 
secutive crests,  or  two  consecutive  troughs,  which  equals 
the  distance  from  A  to  A\ 


*  Some  writers  use  half  this  distance  for  the  periort  of  vibration. 

21 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Most  writers  on  color  refer  to  the  wave-length  of  light, 
but  do  not  explain  it  at  all,  so  I  trust  that  a  simple  experi- 
ment will  not  be  out  of  place.  First  let  us  consider  what 
will  happen  if  we  superimpose  two  similar  wave-trains  of 
equal  period  and  amplitude.  If  these  two  wave-trains  coin- 
cide, the  resultant  wave-train  will  have  twice  the  amplitude 


P'lG.  2. 


of  the  two  wave-trains  brought  together,  as  is  shown  in 
Fig.  2.  If  these  two  trains  are  brought  together  with  one 
a  half  a  period  ahead  of  the  other,  the  two  trains  exactly 
neutralize  each  other  and  the  resulting  amplitude  is  zero. 
See  Fig.  3. 

These  two  cases  illustrate  the  principle  of  interference, 
which  is  interesting  to  the  student  of  color,  as  it  is  one  of  the 
means  by  which  the  wave-length  of  light  is  measured.  Two 
of  the  commonest  examples  of  the  principle  of  interference 
are  the  soap-bubble  and  an  oil-film  on  water,  where  we  see 


Fig.  3. 


white  light  producing  colored  areas.  A  simple  and  satisfac- 
tory method  of  measuring  the  wave-length  of  light  is  shown 
in  Fig.  4.  Two  pieces  of  perfectly  smooth  and  carefully 
cleaned  gliass  are  held  together  at  the  top  with  a  clamp, 
while  at  the  lower  edge  is  a  single  silk  thread  separating  the 
two  plates  of  glass  and  forming  a  very  thin  wedge  of  air 
between  them.     If  we  pass  a  beam  of  light  through  this 

22 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

wedge  the  white  light  will  be  separated  into  bands  which 
will  resemble  the  bands  of  the  soap-bubble  in  every  way.  If 
we  now  place  a  piece  of  red  glass  in  the  path  of  the  light  we 
no  longer  have  the  colored  areas,  but  alternate  bands  of  red 
and  black.  If  blue  glass  is  used,  the  bands  are  somewhat 
narrower  and  are  alternately  blue  and  black.  In  either  case 
the  waves  reflected  by  the  first  surface  of  the  air-film  would 
be  in  advance  of  those  reflected  by  the  second  surface.    At 


Fig.  4. 


the  top,  where  the  two  surfaces  touch,  there  is  no  advance 
and  the  two  wave-trains  should  coincide,  giving  a  very 
bright  band.  A  little  lower  down  we  should  find  a  dark 
band,  showing  that  the  thickness  of  the  film  is  such  as  to 
bring  one  wave-train  half  a  wave  behind  the  other  one.  Still 
lower  down  we  should  find  a  bright  band  again  showing  a 
retardation  of  one  complete  wave,  etc.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
we  do  find  just  such  an  alternation  of  light  and  dark  bands, 
with  the  exception  that  a  dark  band  occurs  at  the  top  instead 
of  a  bright  one.  This  discrepancy  is  easily  accounted  for  by 
a  knowledge  of  wave  reflection,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  ■ 
into  the  matter  here,  as  we  are  interested  only  in  the  number 
of  bands  which  occur  and  in  the  distance  between  the  plates 
of  glass  at  the  bottom,  where  the  silk  thread  separates  them. 

23 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

If  we  find  eight  dark  bands  in  red  light  we  conclude  that  the 
retardation  of  the  red  light  is  eight  waves  at  the  thick- 
est portion  of  the  air-wedge,  and,  therefore,  the  distance 
between  the  plates  of  glass  is  four  waves.  Each  wave  that 
passes  through  the  film  must  pass  back  again,  in  order  to 
produce  destructive  interference,  so  that  each  half  wave- 
length in  the  thickness  of  the  wedge  means  a  retardation  of 
twice  that  amount. 

If  the  distance  is  actually  measured  by  a  microscope  and 
found  to  be,  as  in  an  experiment  cited  by  Professor  Michel- 
son,  two  and  seven-tenths  microns  (a  micron  is  a  thousandth 
part  of  a  millimeter,  or  roughly  about  a  twenty-five  thou- 
sandth of  an  inch),  knowing  this  distance  equals  four  wave- 
lengths of  red  light,  we  have  sixty-eight  hundredths  of  a 
micron  for  the  wave-length  of  that  particular  red  light. 

In  the  case  of  blue  light  there  will  be  twelve  bands,  which 
gives  us  forty-five  hundredths  microns  as  the  wave-length  of 
blue.  The  wave-lengths  of  the  principal  colors  are  approxi- 
mately as  follows : 

Red 0.68  microns 

Yellow 58  microns 

Green 53  microns 

Blue 48  microns 

Violet  43  microns 

Fig.  No.  5  represents  the  wave-lengths  of  the  different 
colors  diagrammatically,  magnified  about  twenty  thousand 


times.  You  will  notice  that  in  the  experiment  the  wave- 
length of  blue  was  found  to  be  forty-five  hundredths  of  a 
micron,  while  in  the  table  it  appears  as  forty-eight  hun- 
dredths.   What  is  blue  ?    Even  in  dealing  with  light  we  are 

24 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

unfortunately  hampered  by  individual  opinion  when  it  comes 
to  naming  colors!  Many  would  call  the  wave-lengths  be- 
tween .48  and  .50  blue-green,  and  those  between  .59  and  .61 
yellow-red.  The  wave-length  of  the  extreme  red  is  .76 
microns,  while  the  extreme  violet  (this  is  not  a  pigment 
name)  is  about  half  as  much,  or  .38  microns.  Some  authori- 
ties use  the  same  figures  as  shown  in  the  table  for  red  and 
yellow,  but  give  green  as  .52,  blue  as  .46  and  violet  .42. 

Few  of  the  colored  lights  can  be  matched  accurately  in 
pigments,  so  the  question  of  nomenclature  is  not  important. 
The  writer  did  take  the  trouble,  however,  to  standardize  the 
original  sample  of  red  shown  in  Fig.  C,  Plate  I,  and  the  pig- 
ment shows  a  wave-length  of  .63  microns.  Why  this  red  is 
used  as  the  fundamental  red  instead  of  the  deeper  red  of  .68 
microns  will  be  taken  up  later. 

We  have  said  nothing  about  the  rate  at  which  light  trav- 
els. We  know  that  it  travels  much  faster  than  sound, 
because  the  flash  of  a  distant  gun  is  seen  before  the  report 
is  heard,  and  a  clap  of  thunder  is  always  preceded  by  a  flash 
of  lightning.  Galileo  made  an  attempt  to  measure  the  time 
it  took  for  the  light  of  a  lantern  to  travel  between  two  hills 
near  Florence,  but  the  distance  was  so  short  he  concluded  it 
took  no  time  at  all. 

In  1675,  Roemer,  by  determining  the  exact  moment  of  an 
eclipse  of  the  brightest  of  Jupiter's  seven  moons,  was  able 
to  predict  the  exact  time  an  eclipse  would  take  place  six 
months  later,  when  the  earth  was  farthest  away  from  Jupi- 
ter. When  the  time  had  elapsed,  however,  he  found  the 
eclipse  occurred  996  seconds  late,  but,  after  another  six 
months,  when  the  earth  was  back  at  the  point  where  he  had 
made  the  original  observations,  the  eclipse  occurred  exactly 
at  the  predicted  time.  Roemer  inferred,  therefore,  that  996 
seconds  was  the  time  taken  for  light  to  travel  across  the 
diameter  of  the  earth's  orbit,  a  known  distance  to  astrono- 
mers at  that  time.  Dividing  this  distance  by  996  gave  him 
192,000  miles  a  second  as  the  velocity  of  light. 

Probably  the  two  most  accurate  determinations  of  the 
speed  of  light  are  those  of  Michelson,  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  in  1882,  and  of  Perrotin,  of  the  University  of  Nice, 

25 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

France,  in  1902.  Although  using  different  methods,  Michel- 
son  obtained  186,333  and  Perrotin  186,345,  results  which 
are  practically  identical.  In  round  numbers  the  velocity  of 
light  is  186,000  miles  a  second.  If  we  divide  the  circumfer- 
ence of  the  earth,  roughly  25,000  miles,  into  this  number  we 
realize  that  light  travels  around  the  earth  seven  times  in  a 
single  second.  It  is  said  a  bullet  travels  at  the  rate  of  about 
a  half  a  mile  a  second,  and  sound,  for  example  on  a  steel  rod, 
at  about  three  miles  a  second,  so  it  is  indeed  hard  for  us  to 
comprehend  what  a  velocity  of  186,000  miles  a  second  means. 
This  enormous  value,  however,  becomes  a  definite  and  finite 
quantity  when  we  consider  the  distances  between  the  stars 
and  the  earth  and  the  time  it  takes  for  their  light  to 
reach  us.  The  light  from  Alpha  Centauri,  the  nearest  fixed 
star,  started  over  four  years  ago,  and  if  an  observer  on  the 
pole  star  had  a  telescope  suflftciently  powerful  to  see  the 
events  on  the  earth  he  would  now,  December,  1911,  be  watch- 
ing what  occurred  in  June,  1857,  four  years  before  the 
Civil  War! 

Since  light  travels  at  the  rate  of  186,000  miles  a  second, 
and  the  wave-length  of  what  the  physicist  calls  red  light  is 
.68  microns,  the  number  of  vibrations  per  second  of  the  little 
particles  which  send  out  the  waves  of  light  may  be  found  by 
dividing  the  wave-length  into  the  velocity.  Therefore,  in 
red  light,  the  particles  are  vibrating  at  the  enormous  rate  of 
over  441,000,000,000,000  vibrations  per  second. 

The  wave-lengths  of  light  which  run  from  the  extreme 
red,  .76  microns,  to  the  extreme  violet,  .38  microns,  are  but  a 
small  part  of  the  wave-lengths  emitted  by  the  sun,  or  any 
white-hot  body.  They  are  the  wave-lengths  to  which  the 
eye  responds.  Wave-lengths  longer  than  .76  microns,  al- 
though not  capable  of  affecting  the  optic  nerve,  produce  heat, 
and  are  easily  detected  by  holding  a  radiometer  or  thermo- 
scope  just  beyond  the  red  end  of  the  spectrum.  This  position 
is  known  as  the  infra-red  spectrum,  and  wave-lengths  have 
been  investigated  up  to  61  microns,  which  is  eighty  times  the 
wave-length  of  the  extreme  red.  At  the  other  end  of  the 
spectrum  there  are  wave-lengths  shorter  than  that  of  violet, 
which  can  not  be  seen,  but  which  can  readily  be  detected  by 

26 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

a  photographic  plate.  These  rays  are  called  the  ultra-violet 
rays.  Their  heating  power  is  small,  but  they  are  very  active 
chemically,  w^hile  the  infra-red  and  red  rays  seem  to  have 
little  effect  on  photographic  plates.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
dry  plates  are  generally  developed  in  a  red  light.  The  short- 
est wave-lengths  in  the  ultra-violet  spectrum  that  we  know 
about  are  approximately  one-fourth  of  the  wave-length  of 
the  violet  rays.  The  interesting  point  to  the  student  of 
color  is  the  fact  that  the  spectrum,  measured  by  difference  in 
wave-lengths,  is  at  least  ten  times  as  long  as  the  part  we  see. 


In  making  references  to  the  spectrum,  I  take  it  for 
granted  that  we  are  all  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  old 
experiment,  supposed  to  have  been  first  made  by  Newton  — 
that  of  passing  a  small  beam  of  sunlight  through  a  prism, 
which  separates  the  light  into  a  long  band  of  pure  and  beau- 
tiful colors.  This  is  the  prismatic  spectrum,  and,  although 
white  light  consists  of  a  mixture  of  all  the  wave-lengths 
between  the  two  extremes  of  the  infra-red  and  ultra-violet, 
the  prism  sorts  out  those  we  are  capable  of  seeing  and 
arranges  them  in  their  proper  order  according  to  wave- 
length. This  separation  of  white  light  into  its  elements  by 
refraction  is  called  dispersion.     Fig.  6  illustrates  such  an 


27 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

experiment.  The  order  of  the  hues  is  the  important  point  to 
be  memorized.  Notice  that  red  is  at  the  top,  and  it  is  fol- 
lowed by  yellow,  green,  blue  and  violet.  The  spectrum  does 
not  stop  definitely  just  beyond  red,  but  blends  off  gradually 
into  a  very  dark  red,  which  finally  is  imperceptible.  At  the 
other  end,  the  violet  blends  into  a  faint  grayish  color,  so  that 
it  is  impossible  to  point  out  the  exact  spot  where  the  visible 
spectrum  ceases.  Between  the  red  and  yellow  there  is  a 
gradual  blending  to  a  yellow-red,  then  to  yellow,  then  to  a 
green-yellow,  etc.,  to  the  violet. 


Although  types  of  the  natural  colors,  except  the  purples, 
are  to  be  found  in  the  spectrum,  the  hues  from  yellow-red 
to  green  are  so  much  stronger  in  chroma  than  the  blues  and 
violets  that,  in  order  to  study  the  latter  colors,  it  is  well  to 
examine  them  separately.  This  is  accomplished  by  using  as 
a  screen  a  piece  of  cardboard,  with  a  narrow  slit  in  it,  as  is 
shown  in  Fig.  7.  One  color,  however,  the  pure  yellow,  occu- 
pies such  a  narrow  region  that  it  is  only  by  magnifying  the 
spectrum  that  it  can  be  examined  in  this  manner. 

Fig.  B,  Plate  I,  shows  the  prismatic  spectrum  in  colors, 
which  was  painted  by  means  of  a  direct-vision  prism  spec- 
troscope.   For  accurate  measurements  the  simple  prism,  in 

28 


COLOR   AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

a  darkened  room,  must  be  replaced  by  a  spectroscope,  as  the 
beam  of  light  is  constantly  shifting  and  the  prism  must  be 
readjusted  every  few  moments.  You  will  notice  the  lines  at 
the  top  of  Fig.  B.  These  indicate  the  position  of  lines  which 
are  visible  in  the  spectrum  known  as  Fraunhofer  lines,  from 
the  physicist  who  first  discovered  them,  and  they  serve  to 
identify  the  exact  position  of  a  given  hue. 

Although  the  colors  obtained  from  white  light  by  means 
of  a  prism  are  arranged  in  order  of  their  wave-lengths,  the 
prism  gives  the  red,  yellow-red  and  yellow  part  of  the  spec- 
trum less  room  than  the  difference  in  wave-lengths  would 
demand,  and  it  stretches  out  the  blue  and  violet  part  far  in 
excess  of  the  difference  in  the  wave-lengths.  To  overcome 
these  discrepancies  in  the  prismatic  spectrum  physicists 
have  made  use  of  a  diffraction  grating  in  connection  with 
the  spectroscope.  A  diffraction  grating  is  a  plate  of  glass, 
or  a  piece  of  speculum  metal,  ruled  with  very  fine,  parallel, 
equidistant  lines,  from  fifteen  thousand  to  twenty  thousand 
to  the  inch.  Detailed  description  of  either  the  spectroscope 
or  diffraction  grating  would  be  out  of  place  here.  For  our 
purpose  it  is  sufficient  to  know  that  the  grating  overcomes 
the  inequalities  of  the  prismatic  spectrum  and  gives  us  what 
is  called  a  normal  spectrum,  where  each  hue  is  allotted  its 
proper  proportion  of  the  spectrum  according  to  the  differ- 
ence in  wave-lengths. 

Fig.  A,  Plate  I,  shows  this  spectrum  in  colors.  Yellow  is 
about  in  the  center,  the  reds  and  yellow-reds  occupy  more 
room,  and  the  blues  and  violets  have  been  reduced.  The 
principal  fixed  lines  in  the  normal  spectrum,  if  we  consider 
it  from  the  top  to  the  bottom,  or  from  A  to  H,  to  consist  of 
one  thousand  parts,  are  as  follows : 

E    638.92 

b   664.79 

F    749.24 


A    (top)    0 

a   113.74 

B    201.61 

C    285.05 

D    468.38 


G    902.07 

H   1,000.00 


Red,  according  to  Rood,  runs  from  0  to  330,  yellow  from 
485  to  498,  and  between  330  and  485  there  is  a  gradual 
blending  of  the  red  to  a  j^ellow-red,  then  to  a  pure  yellow,  etc. 


29 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

Since  the  wave-lengths  of  the  spectrum  colors  A  to  H  run 
from  .76  microns  to  .38  microns  (a  total  change  of  .38 
microns),  the  wave-length  of  any  color  may  be  obtained  by 
figuring  the  distance  from  0  (A)  to  the  position  of  the  color, 
and  subtracting  that  proportion  from  the  longest  wave- 
length, or  .76  microns.  In  the  case  of  yellow  the  central 
position  is  at  491 ;  therefore,  the  wave-length  would  be 
491-1000  of  .38  microns  subtracted  from  .76  microns,  or. 


Fig.  8. 


approximately,  .58  microns.  The  point  to  be  noted  is  that 
the  physicist  can  do  better  in  describing  an  exact  hue  than 
the  artist  or  printer. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  when  a  beam  of  light  is  passed 
through  a  prism,  in  the  manner  shown  in  Fig.  6,  the  rays 
are  bent  around  the  base  of  the  prism.  This  bending,  or 
refraction,  as  it  is  called,  is  caused  by  the  fact  that  light 
does  not  travel  as  fast  in  glass  as  in  the  air.  When  light  trav- 
els obliquely,  as  in  this  case,  from  air  into  glass,  it  is  bent 
toivard  the  perpendicular  to  the  first  surface  of  the  prism 
because  its  speed  is  less  in  glass;   but  when  it  leaves  the 

30 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

prism  it  is  bent  away  from  the  perpendicular,  drawn  into 
the  air,  because  the  speed  is  greater  in  air.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  the  color  which  is  bent  the  least  is  red,  while  violet  is 
bent  the  most,  and  as  red  has  the  longest  wave-length  and 
violet  the  shortest,  the  bending  must  increase  as  the  wave- 
length decreases.  But,  since  the  bending  is  due  to  a  change 
in  speed,  it  can  be  shown  that  the  greater  the  change  in  speed 
the  greater  the  bending.     Therefore,  blue  and  violet  being 


Fig.  9. 


bent  more  than  red  shows  that  the  speed  of  blue  and  violet 
in  glass  must  be  less  than  red. 

The  question  naturally  arises  in  witnessing  the  experi- 
ment of  separating  white  light  into  its  constituents  by  means 
of  a  prism,  whether  these  colors,  once  separated,  can  be 
combined  into  white  light  again.  Fig.  8  shows  one  method 
by  which  this  may  be  accomplished.  The  colors  from  the 
prism  are  received  on  a  mirror,  so  bent  that  all  the  rays  con- 
centrate when  reflected  on  a  single  spot.  If  all  the  rays  are 
properly  united  the  spot  will  appear  as  pure  white  light. 

The  order  of  the  hues  in  the  spectrum,  as  we  have  said, 
is  the  basis  for  our  sequence  of  hue  in  pigments ;  but  when  we 
search  for  pigments  to  match  the  spectrum  colors  we  find  it 

31 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

impossible  to  obtain  pigments  which  represent  any  one  wave- 
length free  from  other  hues.  Pigments  are  also  lacking  in 
chroma  and  reflect  some  white  light  as  well  as  their  distinc- 
tive hue.  Fig.  9  illustrates  how  white  light,  by  means  of  a 
mirror,  may  be  added  to  the  spectrum  hues  in  making  com- 
parisons with  pigments.  According  to  Professor  Rood,  ver- 
milion and  emerald  green  reflect  approximately  eighty  per 
cent  of  their  distinctive  hue  mixed  with  twenty  per  cent  of 
white  light,  while  artificial  ultramarine  blue,  painted  on 
white  paper,  reflects  about  twenty-five  per  cent  of  white 
light. 


32 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  PROCESS  OF  COLOR  PERCEPTION. 

MOST  of  US  believe  absolutely  in  what  we  see ;  so  abso- 
lutely that  when  we  print  red  on  two  stocks  and  in 
the  one  case  it  looks  bright  and  pleasing,  and  in  the 
other  dull  and  of  a  different  hue,  we  are  sure  the  inkman 
must  have  made  a  mistake  or  wilfully  substituted  an  inferior 
article.  It  was  discovered  a  long  time  ago  that  our  senses 
deceive  us,  and  although  the  eye  is  the  most  highly  developed 
of  all  our  sense  organs,  it  has  certain  weaknesses  which 
must  be  understood  if  we  are  to  account  for  the  various 
effects  of  colors  on  one  another. 

As  an  illustration  of  one  of  the  defects  of  perception,  it 
is  only  necessary  to  test  the  eye  with  one  of  the  so-called 


The  portion  marked  cflf  on  the  short  line  seems  longer  than  the  equal  dis- 
tance marked  off  on  the  long  line. 

geometrical  optical  illusions  shown  in  Figs.  10  to  13.  It  is 
evident  that  if  the  eye  is  incapable  of  perceiving  length  and 
direction  accurately,  a  little  investigation  of  the  process  of 
color  perception  would  be  profitable. 

In  light  and  the  spectrum  we  have  been  studying  phy- 
sical facts.  These  light  vibrations  are  translated  by  the  eye 
into  certain  physiological  processes  which  in  turn,  by  psycho- 
logical processes,  become  our  facts  of  sensory  experience. 
This  means  that  simple  light  vibrations  of  medium  ampli- 
tude produce  color  sensations  running  from  red,  the  lowest 
in  vibration  rate  per  second,  to  violet,  the  highest.     Com- 

33 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

pound  vibrations  produce  either  whites,  grays,  less  satu- 
rated colors,  or  in  the  case  of  mixing  red  and  blue  vibrations 
the  purples. 

Between  the  physical  series  and  the  sensation  we  expe- 
rience lies  the  physiological  process  of  the  eye  and  of  the 


Fig.  11. 
The  length  of  the  horizontal  line  .\  is  equal  to  B,  but  it  seems  longer. 

central  nervous  system.  Before  taking  up  the  physiological 
process,  a  glance  at  the  structure  of  the  eye  is  necessary.  In 
the  lowest  form  of  animal  life,  even  before  there  is  an  organ 
of  vision,  the  animal  is  affected  by  light.  In  certain  parts 
of  the  jellyfish  there  are  pigmented  cells  which  absorb  light, 
and  in  the  higher  forms  there  are  "  eyes  "  which  are  sus- 
ceptible to  changes  of  illumination  only.  Even  the  human 
eye.  Fig.  14,  is  not  capable  of  perceiving  color  at  all  points 
of  the  retina.    If  you  look  straight  ahead  and  hold  an  object 


# 


^^v^^^^^x^^^'x 


///////////// 


Fig.   12. 
The  long  lines  are  parallel  with  each  other. 

34 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 


B 


Fig.   13. 
A  and  B  are  part  of  the  same  straight  line. 


in  your  hand  with  the  arm  extended  horizontally  at  the  side, 
you  can  detect  movement,  although  you  can  not  describe  the 
color  of  the  object.  The  eyes  of  some  of  the  animals  are  very 
sensitive  to  movement  at  the  extreme  edge  of  the  retina, 


Fig.   14. 
O,   optic   nerve;     S,   sclerotic;     C,   cornea;     A,    choroid   coat;     I,   iris; 
R,    retina ;     V,   vitreous   humor ;     H,   aqueous   humor ;    L,   crystalline   lens ; 
X,    optic    center  of    lens ;     b,    blind   spot ;     f,    fovea    centralis ;     p,    pupil ; 
M,  ciliary  muscles ;    Ob,  object ;    Im,  image  on  the  retina. 


35 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

and  this  for  them  is  of  utmost  importance,  as  movement 
or  change  in  illumination  invariably  means  danger.  The 
human  eye  is  supplied  with  six  muscles,  which  makes  it  capa- 
ble of  rotation  in  any  direction,  but  the  movement  from 


Fig.  15. 
A  diagrammatic  section  of  the  retina,  after  GreefF.  I  is  the  pigment 
epithelium,  II  is  the  layer  of  rods  and  cones.  The  rods  are  the  small  slen- 
der organs.  In  the  retina  the  rods  and  cones  are,  throughout  the  larger 
part  of  the  organ,  mixed  together ;  in  the  fovea  only  cones  appear.  Ill, 
IV,  V,  VI,  VII  show  various  intermediate  structures  between  the  rods  and 
cones  and  the  nerve  cells  which  are  situated  at  VIII.  From  the  nerve  cells 
at  VIII  the  optic  fibers  pass  out,  as  indicated  at  IX,  toward  the  blind  spot, 
where  they  leave  the  eyeball.  X  represents  the  limiting  membrane  of  the 
retina.  .\  ray  of  light  entering  the  eye  passes  through  the  retina  in  the 
direction  from  X  to  II.  The  light  does  not  produce  any  effect  upon  the 
cells  or  fibers  until  it  reaches  the  laver  of  rods  and  cones. 


right  to  left  involves  a  simpler  muscular  action  than  the 
movement  up  and  down.  This  is  one  reason  why  we  are 
likely  to  overestimate  vertical  distances  such  as  the  height 
of  a  door.  Beneath  Fig.  14  the  principal  parts  of  the  eye  are 
indicated,  but  the  retinal  surface  (R)  is  what  interests  the 

36 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

student  of  color.  The  surface  immediately  back  of  the  image 
(Im)  to  the  choroid  coat  (A)  is  shown  greatly  magnified 
in  Fig.  15.  This  cross-section  of  the  retina,  however,  is 
turned  so  that  the  bottom  of  Fig.  15  is  the  part  which  the 
light  strikes  first,  and  travels  back  (up  in  the  diagram)  to 
the  rods  and  cones  shown  at  the  top. 

The  rods  are  supposed  to  be  cones  in  the  process  of  devel- 
opment and  are  grouped  at  the  outer  edge  of  the  retina. 
Since  we  perceive  objects  best  when  our  eyes  are  focused 
directly  upon  them,  and  as  the  cones  alone  appear  in  th»' 
center  of  the  retina,  the  cones  are  not  only  the  center  of  clear 
vision  but  also  the  center  of  color  vision.  The  area  at  the 
extreme  periphery  of  the  retina  is  totally  color-blind  and  the 
area  between  the  periphery  and  the  center  of  clear  vision  is 
partially  color-blind  in  that  it  is  sensitive  to  a  limited  num- 
ber of  colors  only. 

According  to  the  Young-Helmholtz  theory  of  color  per- 
ception, each  minute  portion  of  the  color-sensitive-surface 
of  the  retina  has  three  nerve  elements;  one  set  of  these 
nerves  is  affected  strongly  by  the  long  waves  of  red,  the  sec- 
ond by  green  waves,  and  the  third  by  the  short  blue  waves. 
In  the  perception  of  red,  however,  the  other  two  nerves  are 
affected  to  some  extent.  The  same  is  true  of  the  nerves 
especially  designed  for  the  reception  of  green  and  blue 
waves ;  they  act  on  all  three  nerve  centers,  but  more  strongly 
on  the  set  adapted  to  the  reception  of  the  given  color.  If  all 
three  sets  are  nearly  equally  stimulated  at  the  same  time,  the 
sensation  of  white  is  produced. 

In  1878  a  theory  was  published  in  Vienna  by  Hering, 
advocating  six  fundamental  sensations  instead  of  three : 

Black  and  white. 

Red  and  green. 

Blue  and  yellow. 
According  to  this  theory  the  retina  contains  three  visual 
substances,  and  each  pair  of  sensations  above  represents  an 
assimilation  or  disintegrative  process  in  one  of  the  sub- 
stances. Red  light  acts  on  the  substance  capable  of  receiv- 
ing red  and  green  in  exactly  the  opposite  manner  from  green, 
and  when  both  red  and  green  fall  on  the  retina,  in  proper 

37 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

proportions,  the  distinctive  color  disappears  and  a  white  or 
gray  sensation  results. 

It  remained  for  Mrs.  Franklin,  of  Baltimore,  to  formu- 
late a  theory  of  "  light  sensation,"  which,  in  view  of  our 
increasing  knowledge  of  the  relation  of  chemical  change  to 
the  physiological  processes  of  the  body,  seems  likely  to 
explain  the  results  of  many  experiments  made  by  scientists. 
In  fact,  Prof.  C.  H.  Judd,  in  his  work  on  "  Psychology," 
which,  as  it  was  published  in  1907,  represents  the  most 
advanced  thought  on  this  subject,  does  not  even  review  the 
older  theories,  but  presents  Mrs.  Franklin's  theory  as  the 
simplest  and  most  suggestive  of  all.    He  says : 

"  The  primitive  retina  of  the  lower  animals,  and  the 
periphery  of  the  human  retina,  have  only  one  chemical  proc- 
ess with  which  to  respond  to  all  light  stimuli.  This  single 
chemical  process,  when  set  up  through  the  action  of  light, 
arouses  in  the  central  nervous  system  a  process  which  is  the 
condition  of  a  gray  sensation.  This  is  the  original  undiffer- 
entiated type  of  retinal  activity.  As  the  evolution  of  the 
retina  goes  forward,  this  original  chemical  process,  which 
may  be  called  the  gray  process,  is  so  subdivided  that  colors 
produce  certain  partial  phases  of  the  original  chemical  activ- 
ity. The  partial  chemical  activities  produce  each  a  spe- 
cialized form  of  nervous  process  and  a  specialized  form  of 
sensory  experience.  The  breaking  up  of  the  gray  process  into 
special  color  processes  begins  with  a  development,  first,  of 
the  partial  processes  which  correspond  on  the  one  hand  to 
blue,  and  on  the  other  hand  to  orange  or  yellow  sensations. 
This  first  differentiation  corresponds  to  the  wide  difference 
between  the  extreme  ends  of  the  spectral  series.  The  origi- 
nal gray  process  does  not  disappear  with  the  rise  of  the  blue 
and  yellow  processes,  but  remains  as  the  neutral  and  more 
general  form  of  response.  At  this  stage  the  yellow  and 
blue  processes  are  each  called  out  by  a  great  variety  of  stimu- 
lations. Thus,  the  yellow  process  is  aroused  by  red  light, 
orange  light  and  green  light,  as  well  as  by  yellow  light.  As 
the  development  goes  on,  the  yellow  chemical  process  is 
subdivided  into  more  highly  specialized  processes,  corre- 
sponding to  red  and  green.     The  result  of  this  successive 

38 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

differentiation  of  process  is  that  the  highly  organized  retina 
may,  when  stimulated  by  the  appropriate  form  of  light 
vibration,  respond  with  specialized  chemical  processes  to 
red,  green,  yellow  or  blue.  If  yellow  and  blue,  which  were 
the  first  forms  of  light  to  arouse  differentiated  processes, 
act  at  the  same  time  on  the  retina,  the  partial  processes 
which  are  differentiated  out  of  the  gray  can  not  both  be  in 
action  at  once  without  being  swallowed  up  in  the  original 
fundamental  process  of  gray.  If  red  and  green  act  together 
upon  the  retina,  the  yellow  process  appears  as  the  more 
fundamental  form  of  chemical  process.  The  facts  of  color- 
blindness can  be  explained  by  stating  that  the  differentia- 
tion of  chemical  processes  is  not  complete  in  the  color-blind 
eye.  Negative  and  complementary  after-images  are  due  to 
the  physiological  instability  of  the  partial  chemical  sub- 
stances left  in  the  retina  after  a  process  in  which  a  colored 
light  has  partially  disintegrated  the  retinal  substance." 


39 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
FALSE   AND   CORRECT   COLOR   BALANCE  —  HUE. 

IN  discussing  the  Process  of  Color  Perception  I  purposely 
avoided  the  use  of  the  words  primary  and  secondary  or 
complementary,  and  Mrs.  Franklin's  theory  coincides 
perfectly  with  our  knowledge  of  the  physical  character  of 
the  wave-length  of  light,  in  that  each  wave-length  may  be 
properly  called  primary.  In  another  sense,  however,  certain 
colors  in  light  produce  other  colors  by  mixture  and  in  this 
sense  are  more  strictly  "  primary  "  than  the  resultant  colors. 
Again,  the  word  complement  is  in  such  general  use  in 
describing  the  relation  of  one  pigment  to  another  and  is 
used  incorrectly  so  often  that  a  review  of  Brewster's  false 
color  theory  is  almost  imperative. 

Newton  and  his  followers  claimed  that  there  were  seven 
primary  or  spectral  colors,  namely,  red,  orange,  yellow, 
green,  blue,  indigo  and  violet.  But  later  this  theory  gave 
way  to  a  theory  of  three  primary  colors.  Unfortunately, 
however,  the  three  colors  selected  by  Sir  David  Brewster 
were  red,  yellow  and  blue,  and  owing  to  his  scientific  repu- 
tation this  theory  has  met  until  recently  with  general  accept- 
ance. In  1802  when  Doctor  Young  brought  forward  the 
theory  outlined  in  the  last  chapter,  but  little  attention  was 
paid  to  it  by  the  layman.  Helmholtz  and  J.  Clerk  Maxwell 
repeated  the  experiments  with  better  apparatus  at  their 
command  and  came  to  the  same  conclusion  as  Doctor  Young. 
The  experiments  with  this  theory  brought  out  the  fact  that 
although  yellow  existed  in  the  spectrum  as  a  color  of  definite 
wave-length  it  could  also  be  produced  by  mixing  red  and 
green  waves  on  the  retina.  Physicists  now  vary  only  in 
the  selection  of  the  exact  hues.  Violet-blue  instead  of  violet 
as  the  third  primary  has  the  sanction  of  the  best  authorities. 
This  color  is  represented  by  ultramarine  blue  obtained  from 

40 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

lapis-lazuli.  Naturally,  each  of  the  three  colors  are  inter- 
dependent on  the  other  two,  and  when  the  blue  tends  toward 
violet  the  red  must  lean  toward  yellow-red.  Fig.  D,  Plate  I, 
shows  the  three  primaries,  red,  green  and  ultramarine  blue, 
and  the  corresponding  secondaries,  yellow,  blue-green  and 
purple.  The  secondaries  are  the  complementary  colors  of 
the  primaries,  each  being  a  mixture  of  two  of  the  primaries 
in  colored  lights.  Thus,  yellow,  as  previously  stated,  is  a 
mixture  of  red  and  green,  the  blue-green  a  mixture  of  ultra- 
marine blue  and  green,  and  the  purple  a  mixture  of  red  and 
ultramarine  blue. 

The  three  primaries  when  mixed  or  when  projected  one 
on  top  of  the  other  will  produce  white  light,  and  likewise  any 
pair  which  are  complementary,  such  as  red  and  blue-green, 
green  and  purple,  and  ultramarine  blue  and  yellow.  It  also 
follows  that  any  two  colors  or  tints  which  produce  white  by 
mixing  are  complementary.  Complementary  colors  in  pig- 
ments produce  white  or  gray  when  mixed  by  rotation. 

I  would  suggest  to  those  interested  in  witnessing  the 
experiment  of  mixing  colored  lights  that  they  try  and  locate 
an  Ives  Universal  Colorimeter.  This  colorimeter  is  pro- 
vided with  three  shutters  which  admit  light  through  red, 
green  and  blue  glass,  and  by  means  of  an  optical  mixing 
wheel  these  lights  are  mixed  together.  Red  and  blue  give 
the  purples,  blue  and  green  the  greens,  and  the  introduction 
of  the  third  color  adds  white  light.  In  fact,  the  three  shut- 
ters may  be  opened  in  such  a  manner  that  pure  white  is  the 
result,  a  simpler  way  of  proving  that  white  light  may  be 
produced  by  mixing  the  primaries  than  by  separating  and 
projecting  the  hues  by  means  of  a  prism. 

Brewster's  red,  yellow  and  blue  theory,  illustrated  in 
Fig.  E,  Plate  I,  is  so  closely  associated  in  a  printer's  mind 
with  the  three-color  process  that  the  question  naturally 
arises  whether,  after  all,  it  may  not  be  the  correct  theory, 
science  to  the  contrary.  It  should  be  understood  that  paint- 
ers have  always  known  that  approximate  representations  of 
all  colors  could  be  obtained  from  few  pigments.  In  fact, 
red,  yellow  and  blue  will  furnish  a  fairly  complete  palette, 
although  more  colors  are  desired  for  brilliant  effects.    This 

41 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

fact  furnishes  the  basis  of  the  theory,  but  Brewster  claimed 
that  these  three  colors  were  the  three  fundamental  kinds  of 
light,  three  primary  colors  that  would  produce  all  hues  of 
colored  lights  the  same  as  in  pigments.  The  artist  may  mix 
red,  yellow  and  blue  pigments  in  any  proportion  he  desires, 
but  the  moment  he  uses  the  words  primary,  secondary  or 
complementary  he  must  be  bound  by  scientific  definitions  as 
these  terms  refer  to  light.  Brewster  implied  that  the  spec- 
trum itself  was  formed  by  the  overlapping  of  sets  of  red, 
yellow  and  blue  waves,  and  furthermore  that  no  other  waves 
were  present. 

In  the  chapter  on  light  and  the  spectrum  we  have  seen 
that,  objectively,  color  does  not  exist,  and  light  consists  of 
mechanical  movements  only.  We  have  seen  that  the  wave- 
lengths of  the  spectrum   run   from  the   extreme   red,   .76 


microns,  to  the  extreme  violet,  .38  microns,  a  gradually 
decreasing  scale  with  each  color  represented  by  its  dis- 
tinctive wave-length.  But  according  to  Brewster,  green  was 
formed  by  the  overlapping  of  yellow  and  blue,  which  we 
know  is  not  the  case.  It  is  a  simple  matter  to  test  this 
experimentally  by  rotation,  using  Maxwell's  disks.  Fig.  16 
shows  two  circular  disks,  with  radial  slits  so  that  they  may 
be  fitted  together  in  such  a  manner  as  to  obtain  various  pro- 
portions of  yellow  and  blue.  Fig.  17  shows  a  Milton  Bradley 
rotating  apparatus  with  the  two  disks  fitted  so  as  to  obtain 

42 


Fig.   i; 

43 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

the  proper  proportion  of  each  color  to  produce  the  resultant 
neutral  gray.  If  too  large  a  proportion  of  the  yellow  is 
exposed,  the  gray  is  yellowish.  If  too  much  blue,  it  is  red- 
dish; but  in  no  proportion  will  there  be  a  suggestion  of 
green.  The  inner  circles  are  black  and  white  disks  so  com- 
bined that  by  rotation  the  resultant  gray  matches  the  gray 
produced  by  the  yellow  and  blue  on  the  outer  disks.  Brew- 
ster's theory  falls  at  once,  while  the  Young-Helmholtz  and 
the  later  theories  are  sustained. 

The  next  question  which  arises  in  the  light  of  the  experi- 
ment just  made  is,  why  do  yellow  and  blue  pigments  when 
mixed  together  on  the  palette  or  slab  produce  green?  In 
the  first  place  the  colors  of  pigments  arise  from  absorption 
of  light,  and  their  distinctive  color  is  due  to  the  rays  which 
they  do  not  absorb.  A  yellow  absorbs  all  of  the  wave-lengths 
of  white  light  except  yellow,  this  it  gives  out ;  a  blue  absorbs 
all  except  blue.  When  yellow  and  blue  pigments  are  mixed 
together  the  mixture  presents  an  intermingling  of  yellow 
and  blue  particles,  and  from  these  a  small  amount  of  yellow 
and  blue  light  reaches  the  eye,  but  most  of  the  light  reflected 
from  the  yellow  particles  plunges  part  way  into  the  blue 
particles  and  vice  versa,  each  losing  the  rays  which  the  other 
can  not  reflect.  Now,  as  stated  before,  no  pigment  reflects 
any  single  wave-length  free  from  all  others;  and  yellow, 
besides  reflecting  yellow,  reflects  some  green.  Also  blue 
reflects  some  green  as  well  as  its  distinctive  hue.  Therefore, 
the  only  colored  light  which  both  pigments  are  capable  of 
reflecting  and  which  escapes  absorption  is  green  and  it  gives 
the  mixture  its  color.  In  the  light  of  this  explanation  we 
should  expect  a  dull  green,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  greens 
formed  by  mixing  yellows  and  blues  are  not  high  chroma 
colors. 

The  harm  of  Brewster's  theory  does  not  end  with  the 
selection  of  red,  yellow  and  blue  as  primary  colors,  since  it 
follows  the  secondaries  are  incorrect  also.  The  secondaries 
are  formed  as  follows : 

Orange  =  yellow  -f  red. 

Green  =  yellow  +  blue. 

Purple  =  red  -)-  blue, 

44 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

Placing  the  three  primaries  with  the  intermediate  seconda- 
ries around  a  circle  in  the  following  order:  red,  orange, 
yellow,  green,  blue  and  purple,  it  is  stated  that  opposite 
hues  are  complementary. 

Red  becomes  the  complement  of  green. 

Yellow  becomes  the  complement  of  purple. 

Blue  becomes  the  complement  of  orange. 

Each  of  these  statements  is  wrong  when  tested  by  rota- 
tion, as  no  two  opposite  colors  unite  to  form  a  neutral  gray 
or  white.  Besides,  such  an  arrangement  when  tested  gives 
a  great  excess  of  orange,  showing  that  red  and  yellow 
occupy  more  than  their  proper  proportion  of  the  circle. 

The  tertiaries  of  Brewster  are  colors  supposed  to  be 
formed  by  the  union  of  three  primaries  in  proportions  dif- 
ferent to  those  required  to  form  white.  But  in  reality  the 
tertiaries  are  the  dulled  or  broken  colors,  corresponding  to 
the  six  primary  and  secondary  colors.  If  red  =  R,  yellow  = 
Y,  blue  =  B  and  Gr  =  gray,  and  we  assume  that  we  are  deal- 
ing with  pigments,  the  tertiaries  may  be  represented  thus: 

Y-f2R4-B  =  R4-Gr  =  red-gray  or  russet. 

2Y-f2R  +  B  =  Y  +  R  +  Gr  =  orange-gray  or  buff. 

2Y-fR-fB  =  Y-fGr  =  yellow-gray  or  citrine. 

2Y  +  R-f-2B  =  Y  +  B-fGr  =  green-gray  or  sage. 

Y-fR-f-2B  =  B  +  Gr  =  blue-gray  or  slate. 

Y  +  2R  +  2B  =  R  +  B  +  Gr  =  purple-gray  or  plum. 

From  the  above  analysis  it  is  clear  that  a  so-called  ter- 
tiary color  can  not  present  more  than  two  of  its  constituent 
colors  to  the  eye;  the  third  is  always  neutralized  by  the 
equivalent  quantity  of  the  other  two.  Therefore,  in  reality, 
tertiary  hues  do  not  exist,  although  the  colors  obtained  in 
this  manner  are  useful  in  decoration  to  artists  accustomed 
to  a  red,  yellow  and  blue  palette. 

I  mentioned  that  besides  giving  the  wrong  complement 
the  Brewster  theory  allows  yellow  and  red  too  large  a  pro- 
portion of  the  color  circle.  But  by  dropping  out  orange  and 
using  red,  yellow,  green,  blue  and  purple  as  the  five  funda- 
mental pigments  (note  that  I  do  not  use  the  word  primary), 
this  defect  is  corrected.  Placing  these  around  a  circle  and 
adding  the  intermediates,  we  have  ten  colors :    Red-purple, 

45 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

red,  yellow-red,  yellow,  green-yellow,  green,  blue-green,  blue, 
purple-blue,  and  purple. 

This  is  an  arrangement  of  pigments  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  given  relations  useful  in  obtaining  color  combina- 
tions either  in  paints  or  printing-ink,  and  in  the  future  it  is 


RP— Red  Purple  G— Green 

R— Red  BG— Blue  Green 

YR— YeUow  Red  B— Blue 

Y— Yellow  PB— Purple  Blue 

GY— Green  Yellow  P— Purple 

Gr— Grey 


to  be  understood  that  I  am  referring  only  to  pigments  and 
not  to  colored  lights.  This  arrangement  not  only  balances 
the  circle,  leaving  no  excess  of  orange,  but  gives  a  decimal 
notation  for  charting  sequence  of  hue. 

In  Fig.  18  the  ten  fundamental  colors  are  shown  around 
the  circle,  each  hue  changing  gradually  to  a  more  neutral 
gray  as  it  nears  the  center.     Opposite  hues  in  Fig.  18  are 

46 


ri<^.A 


;^-;—    -  \ 


•  •  •:  i 

•  •  •  i 


riG.B 


PLATE  II. 

Fig.  a.  The  top  row  shows  five  of  the  fundamental  colors  —  red,  yellow,  green, 
blue  and  purple,  at  a  value  of  70 ;  the  middle  row  shows  these  same  colors  at  a 
value  of  50,  and  the  bottom  row  at  a  value  of  30.  All  of  these  colors  are  in  middle 
chroma. 

Fig.  B.  All  colors  shown  are  in  middle  value.  In  the  top  row  are  the  same 
colors  shown  in  the  middle  row  of  Fig.  A,  but  in  higher  chroma.  The  second  row 
shows  the  same  colors,  but  in  lower  chroma  than  Fig.  A.  In  the  third  row  the 
intermediates  — ■  red-purple,  yellow-red,  green-yellow,  blue-grreen  and  purple-blue  — 
are  shown  in  high  chroma,  while  the  fourth  row  shows  the  same  colors  in  a  lower 
chroma. 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

complementary,  thus  blue-green  (BG)  is  the  complement  of 
red  (R),  B  is  the  complement  of  YR,  etc.  The  analogous 
colors  to  red  (according  to  the  way  the  word  analogous  is 
used  in  this  work)  are  shown  on  either  side  of  it,  YR  and 
RP;  and  the  contrasting  colors  (here  again  I  use  the  word 
in  what  may  seem  a  restricted  sense)  are  the  complement  of 
red,  BG  and  the  colors  on  either  side  of  it,  namely,  G  and  B. 
It  must  be  understood  that  if  the  ten  colors  are  to  present 
an  even  sequence  of  hue,  when  mixed  by  weighing  like 
amounts  of  the  adjacent  colors,  the  five  fundamental  colors 
must  not  only  be  equidistant  in  hue,  but  equally  strong  in 
pigment  coloring,  equally  strong  in  chroma.  The  second  line 
of  Fig.  A,  Plate  II,  shows  five  fundamental  colors  in  middle 
chroma  and  also  middle  value,  and  Fig.  C,  Plate  I,  shows  the 
same  colors  at  their  highest  chroma.  The  printer  is  more 
familiar  with  these  brighter  colors,  and  in  considering 
sequence  of  hue  they  will  probably  serve  as  better  standards 
of  equidistant  hue  than  the  middle-value  colors. 


47 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


CHAPTER  V. 


VALUE. 


WHEN  we  say  that  a  color  is  in  middle  value  we  mean 
that  this  color,  judged  solely  by  the  amount  of  light 
it  reflects  (irrespective  of  its  hue  or  chroma), 
shows  the  same  contrast  to  black  as  to  white.  Value  is  the 
only  attribute  of  the  neutral  grays  from  black  to  white, 
while  colors  possess  the  three  attributes  of  hue,  value  and 
chroma. 

Since  "  value  "  is  common  both  to  color  and  neutral  grays, 
and  as  the  proper  relation  of  values  constitutes  ninety  per 
cent  of  the  balanced  color-scheme,  the  importance  of  this 
subject  will  be  appreciated.  When  an  artist  uses  a  neutral 
gray  in  a  design  he  seldom  knows  in  advance  the  exact  value 
he  desires,  but  mixes  until  the  gray  pleases  him.  He  depends 
on  intuition.  If  he  endeavors  to  construct  a  gray  scale  he 
first  establishes  a  middle  gray  by  trying  different  propor- 
tions of  untoned  black  and  neutral  white  until  the  mixture 
shows  the  same  contrast  to  white  as  to  black.  This  point 
must  be  right  or  the  whole  scale  will  be  wrong.  Mixing  the 
middle  gray  with  white  will  give  the  steps  between  middle 
gray  and  white,  and  so  with  black  until  by  subdividing  the 
scale  is  complete.  In  experiments  with  printing-inks  I  have 
found  that  with  proper  impression  a  mixture  of  forty  parts 
of  neutral  white  and  one  part  of  Engravers'  Hand  Press 
Black  will  give  middle  value. 

In  Chapter  X,  I  describe  the  construction  of  the  neutral 
value  decimal  scale  shown  in  Fig.  19,  and  suggest  checking 
middle  value  by  comparing  it  with  Milton  Bradley's  white 
and  black  school  paper  until  it  shows  no  greater  contrast 
with  one  than  with  the  other.  After  middle  value  is  deter- 
mined accurately,  the  balance  of  the  scale  is  gotten  by  sub- 
stituting the  proportion  of  black  to  white  used  in  middle 

48 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


DECIMAL  VALUE  ^CALK 

NEUTRAL  AXI3 


Oi 


^JC^ITE 


-100 


-95 


-90 


-85 


-80 


-75 


-70 


-65 


-60 


-55 


50 


-45 


-40 


-35 


-30 


-25 


-20 


-15 


-10 


BLACK. 
Fig.  19. 


49 


COLOR   AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

value  in  the  other  values  according  to  relative  proportion. 
Thus  a  60-value  gray  would  have  a  relative  proportion  of 
60  of  white  to  40  of  black ;  but  if  it  takes  40  parts  by  weight 
of  white  to  balance  1  part  by  weight  of  black,  and  produce 
middle  value,  a  60-value  gray  by  weight  would  be  composed 
of  2,400  parts  of  white  to  40  parts  of  black.    It  follows  that 


Fig.  20. 
front  view. 


the  printed  impression  of  the  60-value  gray  may  vary  as 
much  as  five  per  cent,  so  that  the  only  accurate  way  of  pro- 
ducing a  scale  such  as  shown  in  Fig.  19  is  to  test  each  sepa- 
rate sample  with  a  photometer.  Mr.  A.  H.  Munsell  has  pro- 
duced a  satisfactory  photometer  for  this  work,  and,  as  the 
instrument  is  comparatively  rare,  a  word  of  description  may 
be  of  interest.  In  working  out  this  photometer  for  the 
Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology  and  the   Harvard 

50 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

Medical  School,  he  realized  that  the  existing  darkroom  pho- 
tometers distorted  color  relations  and  that  daylight  was  the 
natural  basis  for  color  measurement.  The  other  photometers 
were  also  accurate  only  in  certain  registers,  while  the  Mun- 
sell  photometer  measures  the  entire  scale  from  white  to 
black  and  is  accurate  to  one  or  two  degrees  for  most  colors. 


Fig.  21. 
rear  view. 


Figs.  20  and  21  show  this  photometer,  the  front  having  two 
equal  openings  covered  with  translucent  material  admitting 
the  light  into  the  two  halves  of  the  cabinet,  which  is  divided 
vertically.  The  rear  view  shows  the  eye  piece  (also  divided 
vertically)  and  below  it  the  rack,  holding  on  the  right  the 
standard  white  (value  100)  and  on  the  left  the  sample  to  be 
tested.  The  two  samples  are  reflected  to  the  eye  piece  by 
means  of  a  mirror.    Below  the  eye  piece  on  the  right  is  a 

51 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

dial  which  shuts  off  the  light  by  means  of  a  cat's-eye  shutter 
from  the  right  half  of  the  cabinet  and  indicates  at  all  times 
the  relative  size  of  the  opening.  Say  that  the  reading  of  the 
dial  is  50.  Half  of  the  light  has  been  shut  off  the  standard 
white  in  order  to  make  it  match  in  value  the  sample  to  be 
tested.  The  sample,  therefore,  has  a  value  of  50.  Each  of 
these  neutral  black  and  white  grays  in  Fig.  19  was  tested  by 
means  of  a  Munsell  photometer  and  then  pasted  on  white 
cardboard  and  a  half-tone  made  of  the  whole  scale.  Fig.  33, 
on  page  82,  shows  the  same  scale  with  the  values  in  contact, 


Fig.  22. 


and  Fig.  27,  page  70,  shows  the  values  of  10,  30,  50,  70,  and 
90  contrasted  with  each  other,  forming  ten  two-value  com- 
binations in  two  arrangements.  The  left  upper  part  of  the 
figure  shows  the  darker  value  surrounded  by  the  lighter,  and 
the  right  lower  part  the  lighter  value  surrounded  by  the 
darker.  This  process  of  arrangement  in  mathematics  is 
called  permutation,  and  in  Fig.  27  we  have  twenty  permuta- 
tions, using  two  values  at  a  time.  With  three  values  at  a 
time,  using  the  five  values,  10,  30,  50,  70,  and  90  as  before, 
there  are  sixty  possible  permutations,  sixty  ways  that  the 
three  values  may  be  arranged. 

Handling  three  values  at  a  time  is  a  difficult  task  for 

52 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

the  artist,  to  say  nothing  of  the  printer,  but  that  arrange- 
ment or  permutation  does  make  a  big  difference  is  shown  in 
Fig.  22.  Notice  on  the  left,  the  great  contrast  o'f  black  and 
white ;  the  middle  value  of  the  leaves  is  lost  sight  of  and  we 
see  only  the  flower.  We  realize  that  something  is  wrong, 
and,  in  seeking  what  it  is,  we  do  not  sense  the  subject  as  a 
whole.  On  the  right  middle  value  is  used  as  a  background, 
and,  therefore,  the  contrasts  between  the  background  and 
the  flower,  and  the  background  and  the  leaves  are  equal. 
Instantly  we  grasp  the  idea  and  appreciate  the  beauty  of 
the  design. 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  make  experiments  with 
sixty  permutations,  or  even  with  ten  combinations  of  three- 
value  arrangements,  as  few  of  them  would  fit  the  require- 
ments of  the  given  design.  If  the  printer  can  learn  to  use 
the  ten  two-value  combinations  shown  in  Fig.  27  he  has 
accomplished  much.  One  point  about  three-value  combina- 
tions is  well  worth  remembering,  however.  Areas,  disre- 
garding the  question  of  their  position,  size  or  shape,  will 
balance  if  the  contrasts  which  they  make  with  the  back- 
ground are  equal  steps  in  the  value  scale.  In  Fig.  22  on  the 
right  we  have  a  contrast  of  middle  value  with  black  and 
white.  We  might  have  used  20  for  the  leaves  and  80  for  the 
flower,  or  10  and  90,  etc.,  according  to  the  law  of  equal  con- 
trasts. If  the  nature  of  the  design  required  four  values,  and 
black  and  white  were  used  as  two,  the  other  two  should  be 
balanced  on  middle  value,  one  as  much  above,  as  the  other  is 
below. 

Let  us  look  at  Fig.  27  again  and  compare  the  various 
effects  of  opposition  in  the  panels  where  the  lighter  value 
surrounds  the  darker.  At  the  extreme  left  of  the  top  line 
we  have  a  contrast  of  90  and  10,  a  difference  of  80  in  value. 
To  the  right  of  this  panel  we  have  90  and  30  and  below  it  70 
and  10,  representing  differences  of  60  in  value.  Then  we 
have  90  and  50,  70  and  30,  and  50  and  10,  in  the  three  panels 
next  to  these  two,  showing  differences  of  40  in  value,  and 
lastly  four  panels  representing  differences  of  only  20  in 
value.  These  are  the  most  harmonious  combinations,  be- 
cause they  have  more  in  common  —  they  are  nearer  alike; 

53 


[HE  eye  for  composition  is  devel- 
oped by  experimenting,  by  choos- 
ing between  one  arrangement  and 
another,  rather  than  by  applying 
mathematics.  But  in  the  case  of 
rectangles  it  is  found  that  the  most 
pleasing  proportion  is,  roughly,  three  to  five.  That 
is,  the  width  of  the  rectangle  should  be  to  its 
height  as  the  height  is  to  the  sum  of  the  width  and 
height  —  a:b:  :b:  a-fb — and  if  a  equals  1,  b  would 
equal  1.618.  Socrates  said  that  ''if  arithmetic, 
mensuration  and  weighing  be  taken  out  of  art, 
that  which  remains  would  not  be  much."  What 
remains  is  the  inspiration,  the  genius  of  the  artist, 
but  the  advertiser  often  does  without  an  artist 
because  he  is  unable  to  find  the  ideal  artist  who 
combines  business  training  with  artistic  feeling. 
In  all  forms  of  advertising  the  space  used  is 
generally  a  rectangle.  See  that  the  width  and 
height  of  the  rectangle  bear  a  simple  ratio  to 
each  other —  2  to  3,  3  to  4,  4  to  5  —  if  it  is  not 
possible  to  use  the  ratio  1  to  1.618.  If  forced  to 
use  a  square  the  base  should  be  3  per  cent  greater 
than  the  vertical  side.  This  3  per  cent  is  the 
correction  required  to  make  the  "square"  appear 
more  pleasing,  as  the  eye  overestimates  vertical 
distances.  In  standard  magazines  the  full  page, 
as  well  as  the  quarter  (the  page  divided  once 
horizontally  and  once  vertically),  approach  pleas- 
ing proportions.  If  there  is  one  line  more  im- 
portant than  the  rest  of  the  copy,  that  line  should 
be  tried  at  such  a  position,  that  the  space  below 
is  a  trifle  more  than  2/i  times  the  space  above. 
If  there  are  two  important  lines,  the  first  should 

Fig.  23. 
54 


HE  full-page  advertisement  nat- 
urally commands  most  attention. 
But  in  using  smaller  proportions 
of  a  page  avoid  running  the  rec- 
tangle across  the  page.  It  is  best 
always  in  selecting  advertising 
space  to  have  the  base  of  the  rectangle  less  than 
its  altitude.  This  rule  also  applies  to  general 
advertising  matter. 

As  soon  as  the  important  statement,  trade- 
mark, or  catch  phrase  is  located  in  the  design, 
the  subordinate  facts  should  be  so  placed  as  to 
obtain  "  order  "  in  the  design.  "Order"  to  the 
artist  includes  harmony,  balance  and  rhythm.  To 
be  harmonious  the  different  parts  of  the  adver- 
tisement should  have  something  in  common ; 
to  be  balanced  there  must  be  an  equilibrium  of 
attractions,  or  a  balancing  of  one  idea  against 
another.  To  be  in  rhythm  there  must  be  a  given 
direction  in  which  the  eyes  are  led  naturally  from 
one  point  to  another  in  grasping  the  advertise- 
ment. In  painting,  or  in  drawing,  the  lines  should 
bend,  or  lead,  toward  the  center  of  interest.  In 
type-composition  this  is  possible  only  occasionally, 
but  rhythm  may  often  be  obtained  by  adding  a 
decorative  element  drawn  to  fit  the  requirements 
of  the  copy 

Overornamentation  and  using  great  contrasts 
of  type  are  two  of  the  dangers  in  preparing  ad- 
vertising matter.  As  features  are  added  we  must 
be  sure  that  they  are  not  taking  away  from  the 
simplicity  of  the  composition  as  a  whole.  The 
beauty  of  the  balanced  advertisement  depends 
more  upon  the  typographical  purity  and  the 


Fio.  24. 

55 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

next  in  point  of  analogy  come  the  three  combinations  repre- 
senting a  difference  of  40,  while  the  90  and  10  are  nearly 
opposite  in  value,  and,  therefore,  are  the  least  harmonious. 
An  analogy  in  color  as  well  as  in  neutral  gray  is  always  a 
safe  and  easy  way  of  getting  harmony.  Instantly  you  think 
of  black  type-matter  on  white  paper,  but  in  that,  the  value 
of  the  black,  0,  affects  the  value  of  the  type-matter  only  in 
proportion  to  the  area  of  the  total  type-space  it  actually 
covers.     The  white  paper  showing  through  between  every 

Decimal  Value  Scale 

Black  =  0    Middle  Value  =  50    White  =  100 


Low  Dmrk       Black 
(LD)  (BIk) 


Fig.  25. 


letter  and  even  between  different  parts  of  the  same  letter 
raises  the  value  of  the  type-matter  just  as  if  that  proportion 
of  white  ink  had  been  mixed  with  the  black. 

By  using  great  contrasts  in  value,  you  can  attract  momen- 
tary attention  to  an  advertisement,  but  by  more  closely 
related  values  you  gain  balance  and  hold  the  attention.  In 
Fig.  23  notice  how  much  more  pleasing  the  lighter  initial 
appears  than  the  darker  initial  of  Fig.  24. 

Great  contrasts  should  be  avoided,  not  only  in  the  values 
of  a  design,  but  also  in  the  type-faces  of  the  reading-matter. 
To  make  copy  forceful  it  is  better  to  stick  to  one  type-face, 
if  the  matter  is  short  and  to  the  point.  If  longer,  gain  the 
variety  by  slight  differences  in  size  of  face,  rather  than  by 
contrasting  the  large  with  the  small.  For  example,  if  twelve- 
point  Cheltenham  is  used  for  the  body  of  the  advertisement, 
then  ten-point  for  the  small  display  and  fourteen-point  for 
the  large  display  is  generally  more  effective  than  six-point 
for  the  small  and  twenty-four  point  for  the  large.    Analogy 

66 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

is  the  surest  road  to  harmony  in  this,  as  in  the  handling  of 
values. 

In  applying  the  rule  of  equal  contrasts  very  often  it  is 
desirable  to  balance  the  values  on  some  value  other  than 
middle  value.  For  example,  if  buff  stock  is  used  instead  of 
white,  the  value  scale  is  limited  by  the  value  of  the  stock.  If 
it  is  80,  the  value  scale  runs  from  0  to  80  and  a  three-value 
combination  would  balance  on  40,  A  simple  way  of  illus- 
trating this  rule  is  shown  in  Fig.  25.  The  values  are 
arranged  horizontally  instead  of  vertically  and  are  balanced 
on  a  fulcrum  at  50,  where  the  entire  scale  from  0  to  100  is 
used.  If  the  stock  is  not  white,  but  at  90,  the  scale  is  cut  off 
at  90  and  the  fulcrum  moved  to  45,  and  conversely  if  the  ink 
is  not  black  but  colored,  of  30  value,  we  lose  the  lower  part 
of  the  scale  and  the  fulcrum  must  be  moved  to  65,  half-way 
between  30  and  100.  You  will  notice  the  abbreviations 
HLt,  Lt,  LLt,  M,  HD,  D,  and  LD.  These  are  the  older 
classifications  of  values,  the  value  between  middle  and  white 
being  called  Light,  with  High  Light  between  that  value  and 
white,  and  Low  Light  between  Light  and  Middle  value. 
Dark  is  between  Middle  value  and  black,  with  High  Dark 
above  and  Low  Dark  below  it.  These  terms  were  also  applied 
to  values  in  colors.  Yellow  was  supposed  to  reach  its  high- 
est chroma  at  High  Light;  yellow-orange  and  yellow-green 
at  Light ;  orange*  and  green  at  Low  Light ;  red-orange  and 
blue-green  at  Middle  value ;  red  and  blue  at  High  Dark ;  red- 
purple  and  blue-purple  at  Dark,  and  purple  at  Low  Dark. 
Unfortunately  this  hypothesis  is  not  borne  out  when  the 
highest  chromas  of  the  various  colors  are  tested  with  the 
photometer,  as  will  be  explained  in  the  next  chapter.  My 
purpose  in  indicating  the  terminology  of  the  old  twelve-step 
theory  of  colors  is  to  enable  those  familiar  with  it  to  connect 
this  theory  with  the  decimal  scale  of  value. 

It  is  obvious  that  any  color  may  exist  in  all  values  except 
white  or  black,  and  in  applying  the  rule  of  equal  contrasts 
Table  I  is  useful. 

*  Note. —  This  intermediate  between  yellow  and  red  is  commonly  called  orange,  but 
orange  is  a  variable  color.  The  Century  Dictionary  defines  orange  as  a  reddish-yellow  color, 
of  which  orange  is  the  type.  Many  of  our  color  names  are  derived  from  fruits  and  flowers 
•nd  convey  different  ideas  to  each  individual. 

57 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

It  illustrates  color  value  on  the  even  steps  of  10,  20,  30, 
etc.    Of  course,  color  values  occur  on  every  step  between. 

DIAGRAM  OF  POSSIBLE  COLOR  VALUES. 


100 

(White) 

(White) 

100 

90 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

90 

80 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

80 

70 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

70 

60 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

60 

50 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

50 

40 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

40 

30 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

30 

20 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

20 

10 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

10 

0 

(Black) 

(Black) 

0 

Table  I. 

The  top  row  in  Fig.  A,  Plate  II,  shows  five  of  the  funda- 
mental colors,  red,  yellow,  green,  blue  and  purple  at  a  value 
of  70,  the  middle  row  shows  these  same  colors  at  a  value  of 
50  and  the  bottom  row  at  a  value  of  30.  All  of  these  colors 
are  taken  at  what  is  known  as  middle  chroma,  and  present 
an  even  sequence  of  hue,  so  that  mixing  equal  parts  of  two 
adjacent  colors  produces  a  color  of  like  value  exactly  midway 
in  hue.  The  question  of  chroma  is  taken  up  in  detail  in  the 
next  chapter.  For  the  present  we  are  interested  only  in  the 
value  of  the  colors  shown.  All  the  colors  in  Fig.  B,  Plate  II, 
are  in  middle  value.  The  top  row  are  the  same  colors  shown 
in  the  middle  row  of  Fig.  A,  and  are  in  the  same  value,  the 
only  difference  being  that  they  are  higher  in  chroma.  The 
second  row  shows  the  same  colors  in  a  lower  chroma  than 
in  Fig.  A.  In  the  third  row,  the  intermediates,  red-purple, 
yellow-red,  green-yellow,  blue-green  and  purple-blue  are 
shown  in  high  chroma,  while  the  fourth  row  shows  these 
same  colors  in  a  lower  chroma. 

You  will  notice  that  red  and  green  possess  the  highest 
chromas  at  middle  value,  and  almost  every  printer  knows 
that  this  particular  red  is  the  right  red  to  be  used  as  a  deco- 
rative or  initial  color  on  white  paper  with  black  type. 

The  question  naturally  arises  why  green  of  maxima 
chroma  is  not  used  as  much  as  red.  This  is  undoubtedly 
because  of  a  long  association  of  the  warm  colors  with  black 

58 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

and  the  cool  colors  with  white.  White  itself  signifies  cool- 
ness; we  dress  in  white  clothing  in  the  summer,  and  inva- 
riably associate  green  shutters  with  a  white  house.  If  we 
were  to  print  with  white  cover-ink  on  a  black  cover-stock, 
then  we  should  have  a  case  similar  to  the  white  house,  and 
the  green  maxima  would  be  more  often  chosen  as  an  initial 
letter  than  the  red. 

Now  let  us  take  up  the  practical  application  of  value  in 
colors.  Besides  the  maxima  red  and  green  we  have  the  yel- 
lows, yellow-reds  and  green-yellows  brought  down  to  middle 
value  by  the  addition  of  black,  and  the  red-purples,  blue- 
greens,  blues,  purple-blues  and  the  purples  brought  up  to 
middle  value  by  the  addition  of  white.  The  colors  shown  in 
Fig.  B,  and  the  second  line  of  Fig.  A,  are  only  a  small  propor- 
tion of  the  possible  hues  and  chromas  in  middle  value,  as 
intermediates  in  hue  may  be  made  by  mixing  adjacent  colors, 
and  all  these  hues  may  have  chromas  ranging  from  almost 
a  neutral  gray  to  their  greatest  intensity. 

While  red  and  green,  since  they  are  full  chroma  in  mid- 
dle value,  are  naturally  better  suited  for  small  areas  than  the 
colors  of  lower  chroma,  all  the  colors  shown  in  middle  value 
make  very  interesting  decorative  colors  with  black,  and  will 
give  the  printer  a  far  better  guide  than  depending  on  hap- 
hazard and  miscellaneous  proofing.  So  far,  we  have  consid- 
ered white  stock  only.  If  the  stock  is  tinted,  and  has  a  value, 
for  example,  of  80,  the  color  midway  in  value  naturally  is 
lowered,  and  has  a  value  of  40,  as  explained  in  balancing 
values  in  the  gray  scale.  If  you  select  any  color  above  that 
value  you  must  lower  it  or,  in  the  case  of  purple,  bring  it  up 
to  that  value.  A  concrete  illustration  of  this  point  would  be 
a  deep  red  initial  with  black  type,  on  buff  stock,  as  compared 
with  a  light  red  initial  on  white  stock. 

Another  very  interesting  example  of  the  importance  of 
value  has  been  shown  in  certain  numbers  of  the  Outlook. 
The  stock  used  was  a  light-green  tint ;  on  this  was  printed 
an  extremely  dark  green  or  green-black,  the  ink  being  just 
as  much  above  black  in  value  as  the  stock  was  below  white. 
It  was  not  necessary  to  have  selected  green;  any  color  of 
that  low  value  could  have  been  used. 

59 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Looking  at  Plate  II  again,  let  us  summarize  the  different 
ways  in  which  we  may  apply  the  rule  of  equal  contrasts  in 
colors : 

Rule  1.  On  white  stock,  with  black  type-matter,  any  of 
the  colors  in  middle  value  may  be  used  as  decorative  or  initial 
colors.  The  warm  colors  will  probably  be  preferred  by  your 
customer,  as  black  is  generally  associated  with  the  warm 
colors.  The  cool  colors  are  in  just  as  good  harmony,  how- 
ever.   It  is  a  matter  of  personal  taste. 

Rule  2.  On  white  stock,  with  black  type-matter,  colors 
which  are  equidistant  from  white  and  black  in  value,  that  is, 
equidistant  from  middle  value,  will  balance,  namely,  yellow 
at  70  and  purple  at  30,  green  at  70  and  red  at  30,  etc.  In  a 
three-color  combination  of  this  sort,  however,  it  is  best  to 
balance  a  warm  color  against  a  cool  one,  although  in  middle 
chroma  any  of  the  70  colors  may  be  used  with  any  of  the  30 
colors. 

Rule  3.  On  white  stock,  with  a  type-color  of  low  value, 
a  single  decorative  color  should  have  a  value  midway  between 
that  value  and  white.  If  two  colors  are  desired  in  addition 
to  the  dark  type-color,  the  value  of  one  should  be  as  much 
above  the  value  midway  between  the  low  value  and  white  as 
the  other  is  below. 

Rule  4.  On  tinted  stock  of  a  high  value,  and  with  black 
for  type-matter,  a  single  decorative  color  should  have  a 
value  midway  between  the  value  of  the  stock  and  black.  If 
two  colors  are  desired  they  should  balance,  as  indicated  in 
Rule  3. 

Rule  5.  On  tinted  stock  of  high  value  any  color  may  be 
used  instead  of  black  for  type-matter,  providing  that  its  value 
is  as  much  above  black  as  the  stock  is  below  white.  Adding 
a  decorative  color  is  the  same  as  in  Rule  4. 

Rule  6.  If  the  colored  stock  is  middle  value  it  follows 
that  any  middle-value  color  may  be  used,  providing  that  the 
chroma  does  not  destroy  the  balance.* 


*  Note. —  Some  of  the  new  imported  stocks  have  such  peculiarl.v  high  chromas  that  it 
is  practically  impossible  to  use  them  in  connection  with  any  of  the  ordinary  colors  sold  by 
printing-ink  manufacturers.  Not  long  ago  an  officer  of  one  of  the  most  progressive  paper 
houses  in  the  United  States  picked  up  a  sample  of  an  Italian  cover-stock,  and  said :  "  I 
wish  you  would  try  that  stock  in  your  advertising  and  see  what  you   can  do  with  it.      In 

60 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Cover- white  and  cover-black,  of  course,  may  be  used,  and 
an  additional  decorative  color  midway  in  value  between 
either  one  selected.  Cover-black  is  naturally  more  satisfac- 
tory, as  cover-white  usually  requires  at  least  two  impres- 
sions. 

It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that,  unless  cover-inks 
are  used  on  cover-stock,  the  value  of  the  color  as  shown  on 
white  stock  is  greatly  altered  by  the  hue  and  value  of  the 
colored  stock.  It  also  follows  in  using  middle-value  cover- 
stocks,  two  colors  may  be  selected,  the  one  as  much  above  the 
value  of  the  stock  as  the  other  is  below. 

In  closing,  let  me  say  that  the  printer  as  well  as  the  artist 
will  find  that  experimenting  with  the  gray  scale,  and  par- 
ticularly learning  to  recognize  middle  value,  will  be  of 
immense  help  in  judging  the  values  of  colors.  I  personally 
regret  that  every  color  shown  is  not  the  original  sample 
tested  by  the  photometer,  instead  of  a  reproduction  by  the 
three-color  process.    A  reproduction  never  gives  exact  values. 


all  the  time  we  have  carried  it  I  have  never  seen  it  used  with  a  satisfactory  color  combina- 
tion. About  all  we  can  recommend  is  black  or  a  shade  of  the  same  hue."  The  reason  for 
his  remark  was  obvious.  There  was  no  printing-ink  on  the  market  of  a  suitable  hue  or 
chroma. 

61 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION   TO  PRINTING. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CHROMA  AND  THE  UNION  OF  HUE,  VALUE  AND  CHROMA 
IN  THE  COLOR  SOLID. 

CHROMA,  when  used  in  reference  to  light,  means  the 
purity  of  one  wave-length  free  from  all  others.  In 
pigments  chroma  is  the  quality  which  distinguishes  an 
intense  color  from  one  not  so  intense.  The  expression  "  give 
me  a  red  that's  red  "  means,  as  a  rule,  that  the  advertiser 
wishes  a  red  of  high  chroma.  Vermilion,  flaming  scarlet, 
Persian  orange,  emerald  green  and  other  lake  colors  are 
examples  of  high  chromas.  It  often  happens  that  it  is  pos- 
sible to  match  the  hue  of  the  color  on  the  engraver's  proof 
with  the  inks  you  have  on  hand,  but  the  mixed  color  lacks 
brilliancy.  Disregarding  the  fact  that  you  are  using  a  much 
cheaper  paper  than  the  engraver,  which,  with  normal  or 
transparent  inks,  dulls  the  color,  the  difference  is  that  the 
engraver  always  uses  the  most  expensive  colors  in  order  to 
bring  out  the  maximum  quality  of  his  plates.  These  expen- 
sive colors. invariably  are  inks  of  high  chromas,  and,  in  order 
to  approximate  the  engraver's  proof,  you  must  use  inks 
ground  from  the  same  material  although  not  necessarily  as 
heavy  in  body.  Mixing  yellow  and  blue  will  give  a  great 
variety  of  greens,  but  none  of  them  will  have  the  high 
chroma  of  emerald  or  other  lake  greens.  As  explained  in 
Chapter  IV,  the  colors  of  pigments  arise  from  the  absorption 
of  light,  the  distinctive  hue  being  due  to  the  wave-lengths  of 
white  light  which  they  do  not  absorb.  Disregarding  a  pos- 
sible chemical  reaction  in  the  pigments  themselves,  which 
always  dulls  the  chroma,  the  loss  of  chroma  in  mixing  colors 
may  be  summed  up  as  follows :  No  pigment  reflects  a  single 
wave-length  free  from  all  others,  but  a  number,  some  of 
which  are  quite  dissimilar  to  the  predominating  color;  the 
larger  the  number  of  pigments  you  use  in  a  mixture  the 

62 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

more  counteracting  wave-lengths  you  have ;  the  more  coun- 
teracting wave-lengths  present  the  less  chance  of  obtaining 
a  color  of  high  chroma. 

The  experiment  of  mixing  yellow  and  blue  by  rotation 
also  illustrates  that  different  colors  have  different  limits  as 
to  possible  chroma.  In  the  rotation  apparatus  illustrated 
in  Fig.  17,  page  43,  the  complements  yellow  and  purple-blue 
were  so  arranged  that,  by  mixing,  the  resultant  color  was  a 
neutral  gray  which  exactly  matched  the  gray  obtained  by 
rotating  equal  parts  of  white  and  black.  But  in  order  to 
balance  the  yellow  and  purple-blue  it  was  necessary  to  use 
a  larger  proportion  of  the  purple-blue  than  the  yellow,  as 
was  shown  in  the  illustration. 

In  the  case  of  the  exact  colors  used  in  my  experiment  it 
required  fifty-eight  per  cent  of  purple-blue  to  balance  forty- 
two  per  cent  of  yellow.  This  demonstrates  at  once  that  the 
yellow  had  a  higher  chroma  than  the  purple-blue,  and  as  I 
selected  both  colors  in  their  common  or  high  intensities  it 
also  suggests  that  blues  do  not  possess  the  possibility  of  high 
chromas  found  in  the  yellows.  The  manner  of  calculating 
relative  intensities  is  simple.  If  forty-two  per  cent  of  yellow 
balances  fifty-eight  per  cent  of  blue,  it  is  evident  that  it 
takes  over  one-third  more  of  the  purple-blue  than  the  yellow 
to  effect  neutralization.  If  we  let  C  equal  the  chroma  of 
yellow  and  C  the  chroma  of  purple-blue,  we  have 

42  C  =  58  C 

and  if  we  arbitrarily  make  this  yellow  the  standard  of 
chroma  or  100,  it  follows  that  the  chroma  of  the  purple-blue 
IS  72.4.  42  X  100  =  58  C 

C  =  4200 

or  72.4 

58 

In  Plate  III  are  shown  five  of  the  ten  fundamental  colors 
in  various  degrees  of  chroma.  The  central  point  (N)  is  a 
neutral  gray,  and  as  the  colors  move  outward  they  become 
higher  in  chroma;  red  having  a  possibility  of  100  degrees 
of  chroma,  yellow  90,  green  60,  blue  50  and  purple  60.  It 
follows  that  the  intermediates  not  shown  in  the  plate,  RP, 

63 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

YR,  GY,  BG  and  PB,  have  possibilities  of  chroma  deter- 
mined by  the  chromas  of  their  constituent  colors.  Thus 
yellow-red  has  a  possibility  of  a  chroma  between  90  and  100. 
Green-yellow  about  half-way  between  60  and  90,  or  75,  etc. 

Plate  III  also  illustrates  an  exact  sequence  of  hue,  based 
on  equidistant  hues  in  the  spectrum  with  the  addition  of 
purple  which  unites  the  ends  of  the  spectrum  and  produces 
a  pigment  color  circuit.  The  colors  in  the  plate  show  an 
increasing  area  of  color,  as  the  chroma  increases,  so  that  the 
difference  in  chroma  may  be  noticed ;  but  the  position  of  the 
color  in  the  circuit,  its  hue,  is  a  single  degree  or  division  of 
the  circuit  of  100  hues.  Thus  red  occurs  at  20,  yellow  at  40, 
and  yellow-red  half-way  between,  or  30,  etc.  The  exact 
numbering  of  the  circuit  is,  of  course,  arbitrary.  As  purple 
does  not  occur  in  the  spectrum,  and  as  it  fills  the  gap  between 
the  red  and  violet  wave-lengths  when  we  imitate  the  spec- 
trum in  pigments,  it  seems  that  the  logical  starting  point  in 
numbering  should  be  where  purple  begins  to  take  on  a  red- 
dish hue.  With  this  as  a  starting  point,  RP  occurs  at  10, 
R  at  20,  YR  30,  Y  40,  GY  50,  G  60,  BG  70,  B  80,  PB  90,  P  100. 

With  five  equidistant  hues  established  as  shown  in 
Plate  III,  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  produce  the  intermediates 
making  the  ten  fundamental  colors  of  the  circuit,  and,  in 
most  cases,  these  ten  colors  serve  for  the  necessary  distinc- 
tions as  to  hue.  But  where  a  fine  discrimination  is  desired 
the  hue  may  be  called  simply  by  number.  Thus  hue  25  is  a 
hue  half-way  between  red  and  yellow-red;  hue  21  is  nine- 
tenths  red  and  one-tenth  yellow-red,  etc.  The  numbering 
of  the  circuit  also  enables  the  exact  complement  of  any  color 
to  be  located  by  adding  or  subtracting  50  from  the  number 
of  the  color.  For  hues  from  1  to  50  add;  for  hues  from  51 
to  100  subtract.  Thus  the  complement  of  red  (20)  is  blue- 
green  (70)  ;  the  complement  of  hue  21  is  hue  71;  the  com- 
plement of  hue  80  is  hue  30,  etc. 

It  would  seem  impossible  to  name  and  classify  every  kind 
and  degree  of  color ;  but  if  all  colors  possess  the  same  three 
qualities,  hue,  value  and  chroma,  and  if  each  quality  is  meas- 
ured, it  follows  that  any  color  may  be  described  by  these 
three  dimensions.    Plate  III  shows  that  hue  is  measured  by 

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COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

the  distance  around,  the  rotation  from  the  starting  point 
(0  or  100),  and  chroma  is  measured  by  the  distance  out 
from  the  center  (N).  But  what  of  value?  It  is  measured 
by  the  distance  up  and  down,  and  N  in  Plate  III  is  the  end 
of  the  vertical  axis  of  our  color  solid.  In  order  to  connect 
the  three  dimensions  of  color  let  us  look  again  at  the  neutral 
axis  shown  in  Plate  III  (N)  from  the  front  instead  of  the 
top.    See  Fig.  19,  page  49. 

Although  colors  may  have  any  value  above  0  and  below 
100,  at  a  certain  value  each  color  has  a  possibility  of  its 
maximum  intensity,  its  highest  chroma.  Red  reaches  its 
maximum  chroma,  100,  at  a  value  of  40,  yellow  its  maxi- 
mum chroma,  90,  at  a  value  of  80,  green  its  maximum,  60, 
at  a  value  of  50,  and  blue  and  purple  reach  chromas  of  50 
and  60  respectively  at  a  value  of  30.  Therefore,  every  degree 
of  chroma  of  each  color  shown  in  Plate  III  should  be  con- 
nected with  its  own  neutral  gray.  Red  comes  out  of  the 
neutral  axis  at  40  (Fig.  19),  and  begins  with  a  chroma  of 
10,  then  20,  etc.;  yellow  leaves  the  neutral  axis  at  80,  etc., 
and  in  the  top  view  of  our  color  solid,  N  stands  for  different 
values  for  the  different  colors. 

Various  solids  have  been  used  by  psychologists  and 
writers  on  color  in  endeavoring  to  classify  colors  with  regard 
to  hue,  value  and  chroma.  The  sphere  was  used  by  Runge 
over  a  century  ago  and  in  many  ways  it  is  best  adapted  for 
this  purpose.  It  has,  however,  two  objections.  First,  it 
limits  the  chromas  of  the  colors  shown  on  its  surface  to  the 
chroma  of  the  weakest  pigment.  Mr.  Munsell  in  teaching 
his  color  system  to  school  children  uses  a  sphere,  but  brings 
all  the  five  fundamental  colors  to  a  chroma  of  50,  the  chroma 
of  his  blue,  and  further  equalizes  the  values  of  the  five  colors, 
making  them  all  50  in  value.  These  five  colors  he  places 
around  the  equator  of  the  sphere,  and  above  he  shows  a 
lighter  value  and  below  a  darker  value  of  each  fundamental 
color.  As  these  fundamental  colors  and  their  lighter  and 
darker  values  are  equidistant  in  hue,  when  the  sphere  is 
rotated  they  blend  into  three  bands  of  neutral  grays. 

The  middle  value  and  middle  chroma  colors  are,  as  Mr. 
Munsell  so  logically  argues,  the  best  colors  for  training  the 

65 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

color  perceptions  of  a  child,  as  they  are  constantly  found  in 
the  masterpieces  of  painting,  Oriental  rugs  and  Japanese 
prints.  The  crude  yellows,  reds,  and  greens,  etc.,  used  in 
decorating  a  child's  toys,  could  no  more  be  combined  into  a 
scale  of  color  than  one  note  from  a  cornet,  one  from  a  trom- 
bone, one  from  a  flute,  would  furnish  a  harmonious  musical 
scale.  These  crude  colors  of  higher  chroma  he  is  obliged  to 
locate  outside  of  the  color  sphere  and  indicate  them  as  pro- 
jections. Vermilion,  for  example,  may  be  represented  by 
sticking  a  pin  in  the  section  occupied  by  middle  red,  the 
length  of  the  pin  indicating  that  vermilion  has  a  chroma  of 
90  —  40  degrees  beyond  the  surface  of  the  sphere. 

The  printer's  color  problems  are  not  those  of  a  teacher 
instructing  a  child,  however.  While  the  middle-value  colors 
have  their  place  in  printing,  and,  if  used  more  often,  would 
result  in  better  colorwork,  the  printer  is  also  obliged  to 
know  how  to  handle  the  colors  of  higher  chroma.  Much  of 
the  colorwork  of  the  average  printer  consists  in  adding  a 
decorative  or  initial  color  to  a  page  of  black  type-matter,  and, 
if  the  customer  specifies  red,  the  printer  at  the  present 
writing  would  be  considered  lacking  in  color  sense  if  he 
showed  a  proof  of  middle-value  red ;  he  will  do  well  if  he  is 
left  to  select  the  proper  brilliant  red  and  to  keep  the  cus- 
tomer from  using  it  on  every  other  line. 

The  second  objection  to  the  sphere  for  the  printer's  use 
is  that  colors  when  they  approach  white  in  value  do  not 
necessarily  lose  in  chroma  as  when  they  approach  black; 
that  is,  a  very  light  tint,  near  white  in  value,  may  be  made 
from  a  powerful  lake  color,  such  as  yellow  lake,  which  would 
give  the  mixture  a  fairly  high  chroma.  Taking  this  point 
into  consideration  in  constructing  a  color  solid  leads  us  to 
some  such  form  as  is  shown  in  Fig.  26.  It  starts  from  a 
point  where  neither  light  nor  color  exists,  absolute  black, 
and  gradually  increases  in  size  until  the  diameter  is  more 
than  great  enough  to  accommodate  the  plotting  of  the  col- 
ors of  the  highest  chromas  and  then  straight  up  to  white. 
Obviously  absolute  white  has  neither  hue  nor  chroma,  and 
the  extreme  end  of  the  neutral  axis  at  white  may  be  sup- 
posed to  project  slightly  above  the  top  of  the  solid.     The 

66 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

top  view  of  Fig.  26  is  shown  in  Plate  III  in  color,  except  that 
the  chromas  of  only  five  fundamentals  were  indicated,  each 
at  the  value  where  the  fundamental  color  reaches  its  highest 
chroma.     These  lines  to  the  points  of  highest  chroma  are 


Fig.  26. 


shown  in  the  lower  part  of  Fig.  26  and  the  dotted  line  con- 
necting the  extreme  points  forms  an  ellipse,  tracing  a  path 
which  varies  in  value  and  chroma  as  well  as  hue.  It  is  on 
this  elliptical  circuit  that  practically  all  color  systems  have 

67 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

been  established.  Apparently  the  sole  object  of  standardiza- 
tion has  been  one  of  hue,  with  the  red  in  highest  chroma 
showing  no  trace  of  purple  or  yellow,  the  green  also  in  its 
highest  chroma  exactly  midway  between  yellow  and  blue,  etc. 
An  example  of  such  a  standardization  will  be  found  in  the 
Milton  Bradley  school  papers. 


68 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  COLOR  SOLID  AS  A  BASIS  FOR  COLOR  COMBINATIONS. 

A  COLOR  solid  such  as  shown  in  Fig.  26  standardizes  hue 
not  only  in  one  value,  but  in  all  values  and  chromas, 
and  leaves  room  for  the  location  of  new  colors  of  high 
chroma,  which  may  be  discovered  in  the  laboratory  at  some 
future  time.  This  color  solid  also  enables  the  classification  of 
color  harmony  into  three  typical  paths  and  their  combina- 
tions. Suppose  that  we  start  with  blue,  at  a  value  of  30  and 
a  chroma  of  50.  Moving  around  the  color  solid  in  the  same 
chroma  (distance  from  the  center),  and  at  the  same  value 
(distance  up  and  down),  we  find  blue-green,  value  30, 
chroma  50,  on  the  right,  and  purple-blue  at  the  same  value 
and  chroma  on  the  left.  These  two  are  exact  analogous  col- 
ors to  the  blue  and  will  harmonize  with  it.  The  second  path 
is  vertical,  leading  us  through  different  values  of  blue.  This 
is  illustrated  by  using  what  is  commonly  called  the  shade 
and  tint  of  a  color,  one  of  the  safest  methods  of  obtaining 
color  harmony  for  the  beginner.  There  are  no  complications 
of  contrast  of  hue,  the  sole  problem  being  one  of  balancing 
values.  For  example,  the  blue  of  30  value  mentioned  above, 
when  used  for  type-matter  may  be  combined  with  a  blue  of 
70  in  value,  used  as  a  solid  tint-block.  In  this  case  the  type 
is  as  much  above  black  as  the  tint  is  below  white.  In  fact, 
any  number  of  values  of  blue  may  be  used,  providing  they 
are  properly  balanced.  Where  white  stock  serves  as  a  back- 
ground and  the  30  value  blue  is  used  for  type,  a  decorative 
blue  of  like  area  will  balance  if  it  is  65  in  value,  or,  to  be 
more  definite,  half-way  between  the  type  (30)  and  stock 
(100).  By  combining  a  vertical  path  with  the  lateral  we 
have  analogies  where  one  end  of  the  sequence  has  a  higher 
value  than  the  other  end.  Instead  of  using  blue,  value  30, 
chroma  50,  with  blue-green  or  purple-blue  of  the  same  value 

69 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 


I II I 


90 


10 

«! BORDER 


IDDD 


Fig.  27. 
A  plate  showing  contrasts  of  two  values  each,  using  values  10,  30,  50, 
70  and  90  in  the  neutral-gray  scale.  Each  gray  of  the  original  chart  was 
standardized  by  means  of  the  Munsell  photometer,  and  the  half-tone  plate 
corrected  to  imitate  more  exactly  the  value  relations.  This  plate  illustrates 
Division  I  of  typical  color  combinations. 


70 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

and  chroma,  we  may  use  that  blue  with  the  blue-green  or 
purple-blue  of  higher  or  lower  values.  The  third  path  is 
toward  the  axis  of  the  solid  through  decreasing  chromas 
until  we  reach  neutral  gray,  and  then  out  on  the  other  side 
through  the  increasing  chromas  of  the  complementary  hue. 
This  third  path  may  be  varied  by  moving  through  the  adja- 
cent colors  of  the  complement  to  the  right  or  left  after  leav- 
ing neutral  gray.  The  third  path  is  the  most  difficult  for  the 
novice,  as  it  combines  constant  change  of  chroma  and  a 
change  of  hue  without  a  change  of  value.  Adding  the  third 
path  to  the  lateral  and  vertical  enables  us  to  obtain  color 
harmony  by  analogy  or  contrast  in  various  degrees  of  hue, 
value  and  chroma. 

Good  color-schemes  are  due  to  a  balance  which  combines 
warmth  and  coolness  (hue),  light  and  shade  (value),  and 
intensity  and  grayness  (chroma).  The  pleasing  propor- 
tions of  these  qualities  are  worked  out  unconsciously  by  the 
great  colorists,  and  often  combinations  are  used  which  seem 
to  break  all  laws  formulated  for  the  guidance  of  the  begin- 
ner. This  should  not  discourage  us,  as  the  master  must 
understand  the  color  laws  better  than  any  one  else  before 
he  can  successfully  break  them.  Then,  too,  the  laws  of 
simultaneous  contrast  often  make  what  appears  to  be  a 
deviation  necessary.  Take  the  case  of  a  decorative  cover 
showing  a  large  expanse  of  blue  sky  and  a  white  cloud.  The 
cloud  should  appear  tinged  with  yellow-red,  but  if  you  print 
it  with  white,  to  which  you  have  added  even  the  smallest 
proportion  of  yellow-red  or  yellow-red-gray,  it  will  appear 
altogether  too  strong.  In  fact  a  very  light  tint  of  green- 
yellow-gray  will  appear  yellow-red  under  these  conditions. 
Imagination  also  plays  a  part  in  the  effect  of  a  color-scheme, 
and  often  color  is  suggested  throughout  the  design  by  a  very 
limited  use  of  it  in  certain  portions.  Before  the  artist  can 
leave  out  color,  however,  he  must  know  how  to  put  it  in. 
The  simple  in  design  comes  from  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
the  complex.  An  artist  of  national  reputation  aptly  illus- 
trated this  point  not  long  ago  by  dashing  off  the  word 
"  Chicago,"  of  which  no  letter,  except  the  capital  "  C,"  could 
have  been  recognized  if  it  had  stood  alone.    Yet  the  word,  as 

71 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

a  whole,  was  grasped  instantly.  "  It  is  like  this,"  he  said,  "  if 
you  practice  each  letter  by  itself  time  and  time  again,  and 
then  practice  writing  them  together,  eventually  you  suggest 
the  word  by  one  or  two  typical  characteristics.  So,  too,  in 
painting,  you  must  know  all  the  details  of  the  construction 
of  a  house  and  then  suggest  them  without  putting  them  in 
the  picture."  An  appreciation  of  the  value  of  suggestion 
will  be  readily  obtained  by  observation. 

But  to  return  to  the  subject  of  the  balance  of  hue,  value, 
and  chroma.  Most  successful  color-schemes  worked  out 
consciously  are  the  result  of  the  careful  analysis  of  the  color- 
schemes  of  others.  The  color  solid  helps  us  to  label  the  good 
color-scheme  so  that  we  not  only  recognize  why  it  is  good 
but  are  able  to  use  it  again  in  a  somewhat  altered  form. 
Whatever  attracts  us  in  color,  catalogue  cover,  Japanese 
print  or  magazine  illustration,  may  be  analyzed  according  to 
the  relation  of  its  hues,  values  and  chromas.  If  one  of  the 
colors  is  red,  is  it  the  red  which  occurs  at  20  in  hue  or  is  it  a 
little  yellower,  perhaps  hue  22?  Does  it  have  the  value  of 
the  red  shown  in  Plate  III  —  a  value  of  40,  or  is  it  higher 
with  a  little  white  in  it  —  perhaps  50?  And  the  chroma. 
Is  it  100?  No,  about  80.  This  red  we  have  described  sur- 
rounds a  somewhat  neutral  tint-block,  but  on  closer  analysis 
we  find  it  is  blue-green  with  a  value,  say,  of  80  and  a  chroma 
of  20  or  30.  It  may  be  necessary  to  cover  up  the  red  when 
analyzing  the  blue-green-gray  because  by  simultaneous  con- 
trast the  red  of  high  chroma  adds  its  complement,  blue- 
green,  to  the  gray.  It  will  be  a  matter  of  surprise  how  much 
the  plotting  of  the  relations  of  a  good  color-scheme  in  the 
solid  will  help  recall  it  when  we  wish  to  use  it.  Besides, 
there  is  pleasure  in  the  analysis  itself.  Those  who  listen  at 
a  concert  for  the  union  of  melody,  harmony  and  counter- 
point, and  are  familiar  with  the  different  instruments,  enjoy 
recalling  the  composition  in  much  the  same  way.  We  are 
not  all  gifted  in  music,  but  education  in  color  offers  not  only 
enjoyment  but  it  also  offers  the  printer  a  rich  return  on  the 
right  side  of  the  ledger. 

The  balancing  of  two  or  more  colors  depends  upon  the 
area  of  each  used,  and  as  a  general  rule  colors  of  high 

72 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

chromas  should  be  confined  to  small  areas  —  the  higher  the 
chroma  the  smaller  the  area  —  and  vice  versa,  a  large  area 
should  be  somewhat  neutral.*  Secondly,  the  values  should 
be  balanced  with  each  other  as  explained  in  Chapter  V. 
Thirdly,  the  hue  should  be  selected  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
result  of  simultaneous  contrast,  in  order  to  avoid  glaring 
effects.  If  all  the  hues  in  a  combination  are  not  analogous 
or  contrasting,  in  the  limited  sense  I  use  the  words,  there 
must  be  a  compensating  hue  in  the  color-scheme  in  order  to 
hold  the  hue  not  falling  in  the  above  classifications  in  its 
proper  place.  This  last  method  of  obtaining  color  harmony 
is  sometimes  called  Harmony  by  Balanced  Contrasts.  It 
will  be  taken  up  in  detail  later. 

In  classifying  color  combinations  there  is  one  important 
distinction  between  art  subjects  and  printed  matter  in  the 
use  of  color.  The  artist  never  uses  black,  except  to  indicate 
absence  of  light.  In  printing,  on  the  contrary,  black  is  used 
more  than  colors,  and  in  filing  good  color-schemes  for  refer- 
ence the  classification  given  on  the  next  page  will  be  found 
valuable. 


*  Note. —  If  two  colors  of  the  same  chroma  are  used,  like  areas  will  balance,  but  if  the 
chroma  of  one  is  lower  than  the  chroma  of  the  other  it  must  be  given  a  proportionately 
greater  area.  Say  that  the  chroma  of  ono  color  is  90  and  the  other  50  ;  the  area  of  the  90 
color  should  be  to  the  area  covered  by  the  other  as  50  is  to  90,  inversely  proportional  to 
the  chromas.  In  other  words,  balance  5  parts  of  the  90  chroma  against  9  parts  of  the  50- 
chroma  color. 

73 


74 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   LAW   OF  MODIFICATION   OF   COLORS   DUE   TO 
OPPOSITION. 

THE  change  in  appearance  when  one  color  is  surrounded 
by  another  or  placed  alongside  of  it,  or  when  two 
colors  are  examined  successively,  is  commonly  called 
the  effect  of  color  contrast.  We  contrast  one  color  with 
another  in  the  sense  of  comparing  them  side  by  side;  we 
place  them  in  opposition,  or  show  the  difference  in  the  two 
colors.  But  part  of  the  change  in  appearance  is  due  to  error 
in  judgment  as  well  as  to  effects  generated  in  the  eye  itself. 
Indeed,  some  of  these  illusions  disappear  as  soon  as  we  real- 
ize that  our  eyes  are  not  mirroring  exact  facts. 

We  have  defined  contrasting  colors  as  the  complement  of 
a  given  color  and  the  color  immediately  to  its  right  and  left ; 
therefore,  we  should  avoid  using  the  term  contrasting  colors 
in  the  sense  of  colors  brought  together  so  that  we  may  com- 
pare their  differences.  Say  that  we  examine  a  red  and  a 
yellow  side  by  side;  the  red  becomes  bluer  and  the  yellow 
greener.  Their  difference  in  hue  is  increased  and  also  such 
opposition  brings  out  the  difference  in  the  value  and  chroma 
of  the  two  colors.  But  because  we  are  comparing  red  and 
yellow,  or  in  other  words,  contrasting  them,  they  do  not 
become  contrasting  colors.  Some  writers  have  fallen  into 
this  error,  and  in  order  to  be  still  more  specific  in  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words  analogous  and  contrasting  as  they  refer  to 
definite  color  relations,  I  have  charted  the  analogous  and 
contrasting  colors  of  each  of  the  ten  fundamental  colors  in 
Figs.  28  to  32.  It  is  obvious  that  the  division  I  have  made 
is  arbitrary,  but  it  is  logical  in  construction,  and  if  it  will 
help  to  definitize  these  terms  it  will  have  accomplished  much. 

In  Fig.  28,  red  at  the  highest  chroma  possible  for  the 
different  values  is  connected  with  yellow-red  on  one  side 
and  red-purple  on  the  other  in  their  respective  highest 

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COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

chromas  for  the  various  values.  This  vertical  surface  forms 
the  outer  face  of  the  space  containing  the  analogous  colors 
of  red.  The  inner  limit  is  neutrality,  but  as  shown  in  the 
figure  the  surface  extends  in  a  line  from  yellow-red  toward 


Fig.   28. 

Red  and  its  analogous  colors  in  relation  to  its  complement  blue-green 
and  its  analogous  colors. 


blue-green  (the  complement  of  red),  and  on  the  other  side 
from  red-purple  toward  blue-green.  In  either  case,  however, 
the  surface  bends  inward  on  the  line  of  the  second  color  to 

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COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

the  right  and  left  of  red,  namely,  yellow  and  purple,  and 
from  these  points  moves  to  neutrality.  The  object  of  this 
shape  rather  than  a  form  where  the  sides  would  run  directly 
from  yellow-red  to  neutrality  and  from  red-purple  to  neu- 


FiG.    29. 

Yellow-red  and  its  analogous  colors  in  relation  to  its  complement  blue 

and  its  analogous  colors. 

trality,  is  to  include  in  the  red  analogy  the  partially  neutral- 
ized yellows  and  purples.  Analogy  means  similarity,  and  if 
we  raise  colors  almost  to  white,  or  lower  them  nearly  to 

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COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

black,  they  lose  their  distinctive  hue  besides  having  similar 
values.  Also,  if  we  reduce  the  chroma  of  the  various  colors 
so  that  they  approach  neutrality,  they  naturally  become 
analogous.     The  form  indicated  takes  these  facts  into  con- 


Yellow  and  its  analogous  colors  in  relation  to  its  complement  purple-blue 
and  its  analogous  colors. 


sideration,  particularly  the  loss  of  chroma  in  colors  near 
the  neutral  axis,  and  in  practical  use  will  serve  as  a  guide 
in  determining  the  various  possibilities  in  a  red  analogy. 


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COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

It  is  obvious  that  Fig.  28  not  only  shows  red  and  its  analo- 
gous colors  in  relation  to  its  complement  blue-green  and  its 
analogous  colors,  but  also  the  reverse,  namely,  blue-green 
and  its  analogous  colors  with  its  complement  red  and  its 


Fig.  31. 

Green-yellow  and  its  analogous  colors  in  relation  to  its  complement  purple 

and  its  analogous  colors. 

analogous  colors.  Thus  the  five  figures  cover  the  range  of 
analogous  and  contrasting  colors  common  to  the  ten  funda- 
mental colors,  and  these  same  ten  fundamental  colors  will 

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COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

serve  in  almost  all  cases  where  the  printer  is  asked  to  sug- 
gest a  color-scheme.  For  those  who  care  to  make  further 
subdivisions  it  is  only  necessary  to  locate  accurately  the  hue 
of  the  first  color  by  comparing  it  with  the  five  fundamentals 


Fig.  32. 

Green  and  its  analogous  colors  in  relation  to  its  complement  red-purple 

and  its  analogous  colors. 


shown  in  color  in  Plate  III,  and  construct  the  analogous  and 
contrasting  colors  as  just  described.  The  actual  charting 
would  be  unnecessary,  as  one  of  the  five  figures,  28  to  32, 

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COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

would  be  close  enough  to  use  to  discover  the  limitations  of 
the  given  analogous  or  contrasting  colors.  Say  that  the  hue 
of  the  first  color  fell  at  25,  or  half-way  between  red  and 
yellow-red;  the  analogous  colors  would  lie  between  15  and 
35,  or  ten  divisions  to  its  right  and  left.  The  contrasting 
colors  would  be  the  complement  immediately  across  from  25, 
or  75,  and  the  colors  included  in  the  ten  divisions  on  either 
side  of  the  complement,  or  between  65  and  85.  The  boundary 
surfaces  would  approach  neutrality  in  the  manner  just 
described  in  the  red  analogy  shown  in  Fig.  28. 

Complementaries,  or  the  greatest  contrasts  in  hue,  were 
discussed  in  Chapter  IV,  and  it  follows  that,  in  order  to 
obtain  a  maximum  contrast,  the  two  colors  should  be  in  the 
highest  respective  chromas.  But  colors  to  be  complemen- 
tary need  not  be  of  high  chroma.  They  may  be  raised  in 
value  by  the  addition  of  white,  or  lowered  with  black,  and  as 
long  as  they  produce  white  when  mixed  as  colored  lights  or 
gray  when  mixed  as  pigments  by  rotation,  they  are  comple- 
mentary. The  white  which  is  added  must  be  neutral,  and 
the  black  free  from  toner,  or  the  relation  of  the  hues  of  the 
two  colors  will  be  altered. 

In  bringing  out  the  effects  of  opposition  some  writers 
give  long  tables  comparing  a  given  color  with  all  others,  but 
the  entire  subject  may  be  summed  up  in  the  simple  state- 
ment that  colors  in  opposition  tend  to  make  each  other 
appear  as  dissimilar  as  possible,  and  when  one  color  is  of  a 
high  chroma  and  of  large  area  and  the  other  somewhat 
neutral  the  high-chroma  color  makes  the  neutral  color  appear 
to  be  toned  with  the  complement  of  the  high-chroma  color. 
A  large  man  appears  larger  when  placed  alongside  of  a  small 
man,  and  the  small  man  smaller  than  when  the  two  men  are 
judged  separately.  In  colors  we  might  call  this  opposition 
of  values.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  large  man  is  ruddy  and 
the  small  man  pale.  In  comparing  them  this  difference  also 
would  be  emphasized.  This  might  correspond  with  the 
change  of  hues  in  colors.  Thirdly,  one  man  might  be  very 
strong  and  the  other  very  weak ;  to  continue  the  comparison 
they  possess  different  chromas,  and  this  difference  appar- 
ently would  be  increased.     Neutral  grays  have  no  hue  nor 

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COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

chroma  but  present  effects  of  opposition  in  light  and  shade, 
or  opposition  of  values  only.  Fig.  33,  at  the  top,  shows  a 
neutral  gray  of  60-value  on  the  left  and  a  neutral  gray  of 
40-value  on  the  right  with  the  same  grays  brought  in  contact 
in  the  middle  of  the  cut.    Along  the  line  where  the  60-value 


joins  the  darker  gray,  the  60-value  gray  appears  lighter  than 
when  examined  by  itself,  and  further,  it  appears  gradually 
to  get  darker  as  it  approaches  the  outer  vertical  edge.  The 
opposite  effect  is  noticed  in  the  40-value  gray.  It  appears 
darkest  in  the  line  of  junction  and  grows  slightly  lighter 

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COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

toward  the  opposite  edge.  If  we  look  steadily  at  the  dia- 
gram for  some  time  the  60-value  gray  will  appear  darker  by 
itself  than  when  in  contact  with  the  40-value  gray,  and  the 
latter  will  appear  darker  in  union  with  the  60-value  gray 
than  by  itself.  The  lower  part  of  Fig.  33  illustrates  the 
opposition  of  values  even  better.  Standardized  by  means  of 
a  photometer  each  of  these  grays  presents  an  even  surface 
ranging  from  the  value  of  90  on  the  left  to  a  value  of  10  on  the 
right,  but  the  effect  is  that  of  a  fluted  column,  each  division, 
with  the  exception  of  the  end  ones,  appearing  as  if  hollowed 
out.  This  illusion  is  caused  by  opposition  of  values,  and  is 
effected  by  the  edge  of  the  lighter  value  in  contact  with  the 
darker  value  next  to  it. 

This  illusion  also  may  be  obtained  by  using  any  color  in 
the  values  indicated,  each  value  of  the  same  chroma,  but 
such  a  standardization  is  difficult  to  accomplish,  as  adding 
black  lowers  the  chroma  as  well  as  the  value,  and  each  sam- 
ple has  to  be  tested  a  number  of  times.  The  effects  of 
opposition  in  chroma  alone  are  shown  in  Plate  III.  Much 
is  lost  in  the  reproduction  in  the  four-color  process,  however. 
The  red  in  the  various  chromas  of  forty  value  shows  the 
effects  of  opposition  better  than  the  other  colors,  but  the  best 
way  to  try  the  experiment  is  to  lay  the  various  chromas  side 
by  side,  beginning  at  the  lowest  chroma ;  each  chroma  added, 
instantly  makes  the  lower  chroma  appear  much  more 
neutral. 

Bearing  in  mind  the  results  of  opposing  different  values 
and  chromas,  let  us  look  at  the  changes  which  occur  in  the 
hue  of  colors  in  opposition.  The  statement  that  colors  in 
opposition  tend  to  make  each  other  appear  as  dissimilar  as 
possible  means  what,  as  applied  to  hue?  The  most  dissimilar 
color  to  a  given  color  in  hue  is  its  complement,  so  that  two 
colors  side  by  side  tend  to  look  complementary.  In  the  case 
of  closely  related  colors  this  is  obviously  impossible,  and  the 
change  is  simply  one  of  a  wider  separation  of  hue,  each  color 
appearing  to  move  a  little  nearer  the  hue  of  the  next  color 
farther  away.  Red  and  yellow  side  by  side  make  the  red 
appear  more  purplish  and  the  yellow  greenish.  Since  com- 
plementary colors  are  as  widely  separated  as  possible  they 

83 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

simply  intensify  each  other  and  appear  more  brilliant. 
Fig.  34  shows  the  effects  of  opposition  of  green  on  the  other 
colors;  red-purple  in  the  sequence  of  the  ten  fundamental 
colors  is  duplicated  for  purposes  of  the  diagram.  Green  and 
red-purple  are  complementary,  so  that  there  is  no  change  in 
hue  as  indicated  by  the  unbroken  lines  with  the  arrows  point- 
ing directly  to  the  colors  mentioned.  With  the  other  pairs 
of  colors  the  brackets  formed  by  the  unbroken  lines  point  to 
the  colors  in  opposition  and  the  dotted  arrows  indicate  the 
resultant  change  in  hue.    The  sequence  of  color  in  pigments 


,.;- 

-u 

> 
@ 

® 

@ 

® 

T 

_J 

L_ 

L_ 

_J 

L_ 

(^ 

® 

@ 

® 

@ 

< 

4 

T 

~i 

r 

► 

■~1 

\~ 

r' 

> 

""!_ 

_1"~ 

> 

Fig    34. 


is  unbroken,  so  that  any  color  may  be  placed  in  the  central 
position  for  purposes  of  comparison  by  transposing  the 
colors  from  one  end  of  the  sequence  to  the  other. 

Probably  the  easiest  manner  of  familiarizing  oneself 
with  the  effects  of  opposition  of  hue  is  to  make  a  few  experi- 
ments similar  to  those  suggested  by  Professor  Rood  in  his 
"  Text  Book  of  Color."  First,  cut  out  some  small  strips  of 
colored  papers  or  inks  and  some  larger  squares  as  indicated 
in  Fig.  35.  The  sizes  I  use,  which  give  a  desirable  relative 
area,  are  1  by  li/^  inches  for  the  small  strips  and  6  inches  for 
the  squares.  First,  lay  out  two  squares,  one  red  and  the 
other  green  (A),  selecting  colors  of  high  chroma.  On  these 
lay  two  strips  of  red  (B) .  The  strip  of  red  on  the  red  square 
will  appear  very  dull,  compared  with  the  red  on  the  green, 
as  we  naturally  glance  from  the  large  green  area  to  the  red 

84 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

in  its  center  and  back  again,  etc.  In  fact  this  red  appears  so 
much  more  brilliant  than  the  other  strip  that  one  would  be 
inclined  to  doubt  that  the  two  were  cut  from  the  same 
sample. 

In  a  similar  manner,  by  what  is  known  as  successive 
contrast  —  namely,  looking  in  succession  from  one  surface 
to  another  —  it  is  possible  to  make  a  neutral  gray  appear  to 


• 

B 

A 

V 

Fig.   35. 


have  color.  Take  a  square  of  gray  (A),  somewhere  near 
middle  value,  and  place  on  it  a  small  strip  of  a  green  of  high 
chroma  (B),  make  a  small  dot  near  the  center  of  the  green 
strip  and  attach  a  thread  at  the  corner  by  means  of  a  piece 
of  shoemakers'  wax.  If  we  concentrate  our  attention  on  the 
dot  for  a  few  seconds  and  then  suddenly  jerk  the  strip  away 
by  means  of  the  thread,  there  will  appear  a  red-purplish  tint 
of  the  exact  size  of  the  surface  originally  covered  by  the 
green  strip.  This  image  disappears  in  a  few  seconds,  and 
the  gray  surface  resumes  a  natural  appearance.  It  will  be 
noticed  that  the  image  brought  about  in  this  experiment  has 


85 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

a  color  complementary  to  the  color  which  caused  it  to 
develop.  The  explanation  according  to  Mrs.  Franklin's 
theory  of  color  perception  is  that  the  green  strip  arouses  the 
green  chemical  process  in  the  retina,  but  influences  only 
slightly  the  other  color  processes.  When  the  green  paper  is 
suddenly  jerked  away,  gray  light  is  presented  to  the  eye, 
which  for  the  purpose  here  may  be  said  to  consist  of  a  mix- 
ture of  red,  green,  and  blue  sensations.  The  red  and  blue 
processes  of  the  eye  not  being  fatigued  respond  strongly  to 
the  stimulus  of  gray,  while  the  green  process  has  not  had 
time  to  recover  from  the  excessive  demands  just  made  upon 
it.  In  consequence  we  have  a  mixture  mainly  of  the  sensa- 
tions of  red  and  blue,  which  gives  us  the  red-purplish  image. 
The  green  process  is  not  so  exhausted  that  it  does  not  act  at 
all,  however,  and  its  partial  action  combined  with  the  red 
and  blue  process  adds  the  sensation  of  white  to  the  red- 
purplish  image,  making  it  appear  a  red-purplish  tint.  The 
exact  value  of  the  gray  which  I  found  gave  the  best  results 
was  sixty,  and  with  strips  of  the  maxima  chroma  of  five  of 
the  fundamental  colors  the  best  after  image  was  obtained 
with  the  green,  and  then  yellow,  red,  blue,  and  purple. 

Knowing  the  result  of  the  experiment  just  given,  if  we 
substitute  a  large  square  of  blue  for  the  gray  and  repeat  the 
experiment,  we  may  imagine  the  result.  The  green  forms 
the  same  negative  image,  but  the  complementary  tint, 
instead  of  bemg  judged  on  a  white  or  gray  surface,  is 
affected  by  the  color  of  the  background,  and  we  have  a  mix- 
ture of  the  blue  with  the  weaker  red-purplish  tint  forming 
a  blue-purplish  tint.  A  yellow  background  in  a  like  man- 
ner will  give  a  yellow-red  tint.  Any  color  may  be  substi- 
tuted for  the  green  strip  with  the  background  of  a  closely 
related  color  with  similar  results.  Another  experiment  is  to 
use  black  for  the  small  strip  (B)  with  any  color  for  the  back- 
ground, when,  after  concentrating  the  attention  on  the  edge 
of  the  black  strip,  it  is  suddenly  withdrawn,  one  sees  in  its 
place  a  more  luminous  color  than  the  background  itself, 
although  naturally  of  the  same  hue ;  in  fact,  the  background 
outside  of  this  spot  will  appear  to  possess  a  decidedly  lower 
chroma.    The  explanation  is  that  one  or  more  of  the  chem- 

86 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

ical  processes  of  the  eye  has  been  taxed  over  the  larger  part 
of  the  retina,  but  has  not  been  stimulated  at  the  spot  receiv- 
ing the  image  of  the  black  strip.  When  the  strip  is  removed 
that  portion  receives  a  much  greater  stimulus,  naturally, 
than  the  balance  of  the  retina,  and  the  outer  portion  of  the 
square  appears  much  grayer  than  the  luminous  spot.  If 
instead  of  a  black  strip  we  use  a  colored  strip  complementary 
in  hue  to  the  background,  we  still  further  intensify  the  after 
image,  as  we  not  only  protect  the  retina  at  that  point  from 
certain  rays  so  that  later  it  will  be  very  sensitive  to  them, 
but  further  we  fatigue  the  nerves  capable  of  receiving  the 
other  colors.  In  short,  by  staring  at  a  blue-green,  we  tire 
the  nerves  capable  of  receiving  all  colors  except  red,  and 
when  the  red  is  uncovered  we  receive  an  exceptionally  pure 
sensation  of  that  color. 

Successive  contrast  plays  an  important  part  in  design, 
because  the  eye  involuntarily  wanders  from  one  surface  to 
another,  and  it  even  affects  the  intensity  of  black  printing- 
ink.  If  black  is  printed  on  solid  red  it  will  appear  greenish ; 
on  green  it  will  tend  to  look  as  if  a  dirty  red  had  been  mixed 
with  it,  etc.  To  overcome  this  difficulty,  mix  a  little  of  the 
background  color  into  the  black,  if  the  inks  used  in  making 
the  background  color  will  not  injure  the  working  qualities 
of  the  black.  Use  just  enough  to  overcome  the  hue  gen- 
erated by  opposition.  The  best  colors  to  use  in  toning  blacks 
under  such  circumstances  are  bronze-red  on  a  red  back- 
ground, emerald  or  other  lake  greens  on  a  green  background, 
a  high-grade  bronze-blue  on  blue,  indian-yellow  on  yellow 
and  purple-lake  for  a  purple  tint-block.  The  effects  of 
opposition  act  more  decidedly  on  a  given  color,  where  the 
other  color  occupies  a  large  area  and  surrounds  it,  as  is  the 
case  with  the  tint-block  and  the  black  type-matter  just  men- 
tioned. 

In  all  experiments  in  successive  contrast  the  illusion  is 
obtained  by  retinal  fatigue,  either  through  voluntary  or 
involuntary  concentration,  the  latter  due  to  the  presence  of 
a  large  area  of  a  color  of  high  chroma.  The  effects  of  simul- 
taneous contrast,  on  the  contrary,  are  not  due  to  retinal 
fatigue,  but  to  deception  of  judgment.    The  same  strips  and 

87 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

squares  of  paper  used  before,  with  a  sheet  of  tissue  or  other 
semi-transparent  white  paper,  will  enable  us  to  prove  this 
statement.  If  we  take  a  large  square  of  a  high-chroma 
purple  (A)  and  lay  on  it  a  small  strip  of  gray  (B)  there  is 
only  a  slight  change  in  the  appearance  of  the  gray,  and  it 
requires  close  observation  to  detect  it.  Now  comes  the 
curious  part  of  the  experiment.  The  instant  we  cover  both 
colors  with  the  tissue-paper  the  gray  slip  becomes  a  decidedly 
yellow-gray.  This  proves  that  the  effects  of  opposition  are 
much  greater  between  tints  than  between  full-strength  col- 
ors, as  covering  the  combination  with  tissue-paper  is  equiva- 
lent to  adding  a  large  amount  of  white  to  both  colors.  Using 
the  five  colors,  red,  yellow,  green,  blue,  and  purple,  in  their 
highest  chromas,  with  all  the  neutral  values  from  10  to  90 
for  the  small  slip,  I  arrived  at  the  following  results :  With 
a  number  of  people  of  trained  color  vision  the  greatest 
change  was  with  yellow  as  a  background  and  60-value  gray ; 
with  the  tissue-paper  40  gray  gave  the  greatest  change. 
Green  came  next  as  a  background,  affording  the  greatest 
change  in  a  60-value  gray ;  with  tissue-paper,  20  gray.  Then 
purple  with  60  gray;  with  tissue,  40  gray.  Then  red  with 
30  gray,  or  20  with  tissue,  and  lastly  the  blue  background, 
which  gave  its  strongest  contrast  with  a  40-value  gray  with 
or  without  tissue-paper.  Analyzing  these  results  demon- 
strates that  yellow  (value  80)  and  red  (value  40)  show 
greater  contrasts  with  a  gray  of  a  lower  value  than  they 
have,  while  with  green  (value  50),  blue  (value  30),  and 
purple  (value  30)  the  reverse  is  true.  This  fact  is  useful  to 
the  painter  in  giving  a  surface  of  neutral-gray  color  by 
opposition.  If  it  joins  red  or  yellow,  he  knows  beforehand 
that  the  value  of  the  gray  must  be  lower  than  the  value  of 
the  red  or  yellow  which  he  has  mixed  on  his  palette,  if  he 
expects  the  maximum  brilliancy  in  the  gray  itself.  .  With 
green,  blue,  or  purple  he  raises  the  gray  above  the  value 
of  these  colors. 

Another  experiment  naturally  suggests  itself,  namely: 
that  of  using  a  large  gray  square  and  placing  on  it  a  small 
colored  slip.  Even  with  tissue-paper,  however,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  notice  any  change  in  the  appearance  of  the  gray 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

square.  This  demonstrates  that  to  notice  effects  of  opposi- 
tion the  active  color  must  have  a  surface  considerably  larger 
than  the  one  acted  upon  and  should  surround  the  latter,  as 
stated  above. 

To  sum  up  the  effects  of  simultaneous  contrast,  it  may- 
be said  that  virhen  tints  are  contrasted  with  each  other,  as  in 
printing  flat  surfaces,  the  change  in  appearance  is  greater 
than  w^ith  full-strength  colors.  If  one  of  the  surfaces  is 
somewhat  neutral  and  of  smaller  area  than  the  other  color, 
the  neutral  color  is  the  one  that  undergoes  change,  but  if 
both  are  fairly  strong  colors  of  the  same  relative  area,  both 
will  undergo  change  as  indicated  in  Fig.  34. 


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COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

HARMONY   BY   BALANCED    CONTRASTS  —  SEQUENCES — 
ANALOGIES  OF  HUE,  VALUE  AND  CHROMA. 

IN  the  table  of  typical  color  combinations,  Chapter  Yll, 
under  Section  IV  e,  I  speak  of  a  three-color  combination 
where  the  second  color  is  neither  analogous  nor  contrast- 
ing to  the  first  color,  and  the  third  color  holds  the  second 
color  in  place,  obviating  the  results  of  simultaneous  contrast. 
This  is  called  Harmony  by  Balanced  Contrasts,  and  I  pur- 
posely left  the  discussion  of  this  subject  until  after  we  had 
taken  up  the  modification  of  colors  due  to  opposition,  so  that 
the  purpose  of  the  third  color  would  be  self-evident.  To  illus- 
trate :  let  us  take  yellow  as  the  first  color  of  the  combina- 
tion ;  with  this  we  wish  to  use  blue-green,  a  color  which  is 
neither  analogous  nor  contrasting.  We  know  from  experi- 
ment that  the  yellow  will  tend  to  make  the  blue-green  appear 
blue,  and  we  know  further,  from  experience,  that  yellow  and 
blue-green  do  not  make  a  pleasing  combination  unless  they 
are  brought  into  harmony  by  reducing  their  chromas  or 
changing  their  values.  The  way  out  of  the  predicament  is 
to  add  a  third  color  to  the  combination,  a  color  lying  on  the 
opposite  side  of  blue-green,  farther  away  from  the  j-ellow. 
The  color  immediately  to  the  right  of  blue-green  —  namely, 
blue  —  is  too  close  to  serve  the  purpose,  but  any  of  the  next 
three — purple-blue,  purple  or  red-purple — may  be  selected. 
It  is  obvious  that  as  the  third  color  is  closer  to  the  comple- 
ment of  yellow,  or  in  one  case  the  complement,  it  would  tend 
to  make  the  blue-green  dissimilar  to  itself  —  namely,  more 
greenish,  just  opposite  from  the  way  it  is  affected  by  yellow. 
The  blue-green  between  opposite  influences  retains  its  nor- 
mal appearance  and  the  third  color  also  completes  the  triad, 
giving  us  a  relation  of  the  two  intervals  between  the  middle 
color  and  the  extremes.     If  the  second  color  is  three  steps 

90 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

away  from  the  first  color  selected,  then  the  third  color  may 
be  five,  six,  or  seven  steps  away ;  if  four  steps,  as  in  the  case 
above,  the  third  color  may  be  the  sixth,  seventh  or  eighth 
color.  Ahvays  count  the  first  color  selected,  the  color  you 
start  from,  as  one.  In  the  example  given,  yellow  would  be 
one,  green-yellow  two,  green  three,  blue-green  four.  The 
total  number  of  these  three-color  combinations  would  be : 


One  (the  first  color  selected)  with  3  and  5,  6  or  7,  count- 
ing to  the  right. 

One  (the  first  color  selected)  with  3  and  5,  6  or  7,  count- 
ing to  the  left. 

One  (the  first  color  selected)  with  4  and  6,  7  or  8,  count- 
ing to  the  right. 

One  (the  first  color  selected)  with  4  and  6,  7  or  8,  count- 
ing to  the  left. 

91 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Fig.  36  illustrates  the  balanced  contrasts  of  these  classifi- 
cations with  yellow  as  the  first  color.  It  is  understood,  of 
course,  that  in  selecting  a  color-scheme  by  any  of  the  four 
methods  the  values  of  the  colors  must  conform  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  design.  A  large  tint-block  should  not  be  printed 
in  a  color  of  high  chroma ;  use  a  color  of  low  chroma,  and 
alter  the  value  by  adding  white  until  it  balances  with  the 
darker  type-matter  and  decorative  color.  If  a  strong  color 
is  used,  confine  it  to  a  small  area,  as  stated  before  in  regard 
to  other  methods  of  obtaining  color  harmony ;  let  it  accentu- 
ate the  design,  and  do  not  injure  the  effect  by  introducing 
another  bright  color.  Constantly  keep  in  mind  that  the  far- 
ther you  get  from  the  high-chroma  colors  in  selecting  your 
color-scheme  the  more  refined  is  the  color  harmony. 

In  Chapter  V  it  was  demonstrated  that  in  the  neutral 
value  scale  analogy  is  the  surest  road  to  harmony.  This  is 
true  also  of  colors,  and  in  obtaining  harmony  spots  of  color 


White 


may  be  analogous  in  value,  in  hue,  and,  when  they  are  of  the 
same  hue,  they  may  be  analogous  in  chroma.  If  two  or  more 
values  of  the  same  color  are  used,  a  light  and  dark  green  for 
example,  the  harmony  of  chroma  is  obtained  by  bringing 
both  colors  to  approximately  the  same  chroma. 

92 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Let  US  apply  this  principle  of  analogy  to  correcting  an 
unsuccessful  color-scheme.  The  first  thought  is  to  bring  the 
colors  into  more  analogous  values  —  namely,  to  diminish  the 
range  of  values  toward  one  value.  The  value  toward  which 
we  converge  them  may  be  any  value  between  black  and 
white;  in  printing-inks,  however,  the  very  dark  colors  are 
often  mistaken  for  dirty  blacks,  and  light  tints  soil  too  easily 
to  be  practical.  In  Fig.  37  the  colors  a  to  i  have  values  from 
90  down  to  10,  and  are  indicated  in  four  places  as  approach- 
ing analogy  in  middle  value.  A,  b,  c,  etc.,  may  be  any  color 
at  the  value  indicated,  and  in  experimenting  with  color  com- 
binations three  colors  probably  would  answer ;  for  example : 
tint-block  at  80  (b),  type  color  at  20  (h),  and  decorative 
color  at  50  (e) .  They  may  be  made  more  analogous,  as  indi- 
cated in  the  four  positions,  but  absolute  analogy  in  value  is 
not  desired  and  becomes  monotonous. 

The  second  thought  in  altering  an  unsuccessful  color- 
scheme  is  to  obtain  a  closer  analogy  of  hue.  This  may  be 
done  by  adding  some  color  which  we  wish  to  predominate 
to  each  of  the  colors.  If  we  view  nature  through  a  piece  of 
blue-green  glass,  blue-green  is  added  to  every  color  we  see 
and  reds  appear  almost  black ;  in  pigments  the  same  effects 
are  obtained  as  indicated  above  and  are  extremely  interest- 
ing. Often  it  is  possible  to  save  a  color-design  by  mixing  a 
given  color  —  blue,  for  example  —  with  each  of  the  colors, 
using  one-half  as  much  blue  as  the  color  itself.  Where  the 
quantity  of  blue  added  equals  the  quantity  of  the  other  color, 
allowance  being  made  for  inequality  of  chromas,  the  com- 
plement of  blue  —  yellow-red  —  becomes  a  neutral.  The 
addition  of  blue  is  shown  as  follows,  using  five  of  the  funda- 
mental colors  and  yellow-red : 


R 

YR 

Y 

G 

B 

P 

Plus    

B 

B 

B 

B 

B 

Equals    

P 

N 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

Therefore,  in  this  analogy  of  hue,  or,  more  properly 
speaking,  this  "blue  accent,"  purple  would  be  used  where 
we  had  used  red  before,  neutral  gray  for  yellow-red,  green 


93 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

for  yellow,  blue-green  for  green;  blue  remains  the  same, 
or  we  may  alter  it  by  adding  white  to  raise  the  value,  and 
purple-blue  is  used  instead  of  purple.  The  analogy,  as  far 
as  hue  is  concerned,  is  illustrated  in  Fig.  38 ;  the  purple  and 
green  obtained  by  mixing  the  red  and  blue  and  yellow  and 
blue  are  not  as  high  in  chroma,  however,  as  the  original 
purple  and  green. 

A  third  method  of  correcting  an  unsatisfactory  color- 
scheme  is  to  approach  a  harmony  of  neutrality ;  a  glance  at 


the  color  solid  will  show  the  method  of  procedure.  To  each 
color  we  must  add  the  complement  of  that  color  or  black, 
and  if  by  so  doing  the  value  of  color  is  lowered,  it  must  be 
raised  to  its  original  value  with  white.  It  is  also  possible  to 
combine  analogy  of  value  with  analogy  of  neutralization  by 
converging  the  values  first  and  then  graying  them  toward 
neutrality. 

In  Chapter  VII  I  outlined  the  three  paths  through  the 
color  solids  as  bases  for  color-schemes  and  further  sug- 
gested the  combination  of  these  paths  one  with  another. 

94 


COLOR   AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Combining  the  lateral  with  the  vertical  path  —  namely, 
sequence  of  hue  —  in  all  values  gives  us  such  a  great  variety 
of  tones  from  which  to  choose  color-schemes  that,  even 
neglecting  the  question  of  varying  chroma,  we  are  often  at  a 
loss  as  to  where  to  begin.  The  diagonal  path,  in  sequence 
of  hue,  confines  our  attention  to  certain  possibilities;  but 
even  with  this  formula  to  guide  us,  we  have  a  great  variety 
of  color-schemes  from  which  to  choose,  as  we  may  select 
colors  at  various  intervals.  Let  us  trace  the  diagonal  paths 
in  Table  II,  which  is  Table  I  doubled  in  size  for  the  sake  of 
convenience.  Let  us  start  from  red  (R),  value  10,  near  the 
middle  of  the  table.  The  sequence  of  the  diagonal  to  the 
right  is  R  (10)  YR  (20)  Y  (30)  GY  (40)  G  (50)  BG  (60) 
B  (70)  PB  (80)  P  (90)  ;  to  the  left  R  (10)  RP  (20)  P  (30) 

DIAGRAM  OF  POSSIBLE  COLOR  VALUES. 


100 

(White) 

(White) 

90 

RP    R 

YR 

Y  GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB     P 

90 

80 

RP    R 

YR 

Y  GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB     P 

80 

70 

RP    R 

YR 

Y  GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB     P 

70 

60 

RP    R 

YR 

Y  GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB     P 

60 

50 

RP    R 

YR 

Y  GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB     P 

50 

40 

RP    R 

YR 

Y  GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB     P 

40 

30 

RP    R 

YR 

Y  GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB     P 

30 

20 

RP    R 

YR 

Y  GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB     P 

20 

10 

RP    R 

YR 

Y  GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB 

P 

RP 

R 

YR 

Y 

GY 

G 

BG 

B 

PB     P 

10 

0 

(Black) 

(Black) 

0 

Table  II. 

PB  (40)  B  (50)  BG  (60)  G  (70)  GY  (80)  Y  (90).  Since 
these  sequences  are  composed  of  hues  which  lie  adjacent  to 
each  other,  such  sequences  would  be  called  sequences  of  sec- 
onds. More  interesting  sequences  are  those  of  intervals  of 
the  third,  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth.  Always  count  the  color 
you  start  with  as  one,  and  after  counting  one  interval  count 
it  again  as  one  in  the  second  interval.  Using  intervals  of 
the  sixth  gives  us  a  color  and  its  complement  repeated  in 
different  values.  If  we  start  with  red,  value  10,  as  before, 
and  trace  the  diagonal  to  the  right  in  sixths,  we  have: 
R  (10)  BG  (20)  R  (30)  BG  (40),  etc.,  which  is  a  sequence 
without  enough  change  in  value  in  the  successive  reds  and 
blue-greens  to  make  it  interesting.  Dropping  out  the  even 
values  in  Table  II  —  namely,  20,  40,  60,  and  80  — will 
improve  the  sequence;  it  would  then  be:  R  (10)  BG  (30) 
R  (50)  BG  (70)  R  (90),  which  is  a  good  five-color  scheme. 

95 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

Sequences  may  also  be  obtained  by  the  repetition  of  certain 
intervals,  such  as  the  fourth  followed  by  the  fifth,  which 
would  give  R  (10)  GY  (20)  PB  (30)  R  (40)  G  (50)  PB 
(60)  YR  (70)  G  (80)  and  P  (90),  or,  omitting  the  even 
values  as  before,  R  (10)  PB  (30)  G  (50)  YR  (70)  and 
P  (90). 

For  those  who  are  anxious  to  go  more  deeply  into  the 
question  of  sequences,  I  would  recommend  again  "A  Theory 
of  Pure  Design,"  by  Denman  W.  Ross.  He  treats  the  subject 
exhaustively.  My  personal  regret  is  that  his  use  of  the 
twelve-step  sequence  of  hue  instead  of  the  ten-step  sequence 
may  prove  confusing  to  some. 


96 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  WEIGHING  AND  MIXING  OF  INKS. 

IF  a  printer  expects  to  derive  full  benefit  from  reading 
works  on  color,  he  must  alternate  his  reading  with  prac- 
tical experiments ;  the  laboratory  is  as  important  in  color 
as  in  chemistry.  A  good  way  to  begin  is  to  construct  a  neutral 
value-scale,  using  black  and  white,  and  the  first  surprise  of 
the  novice  will  be  the  tinctorial  power  of  black.  Half  black 
and  half  white  by  weight  will  be  so  near  black  itself  as  to 
show  very  little  difference  in  value.  Next  the  beginner  will 
find  that  the  same  bulk-quantity  of  different  inks  varies 
greatly  in  weight.  Almost  every  color  represents  a  different 
specific  gravity.  For  example,  mixing-white  is  over  one  and 
one-half  times  as  heavy  as  half-tone  black,  and  cover-white 
is  still  heavier.  In  order  to  obtain  any  degree  of  accuracy  in 
compounding  inks,  they  must  be  weighed,  and  weighed  care- 
fidly.  Naturally,  the  first  thing  to  buy  is  a  scale,  and  a  satis- 
factory scale  for  just  such  work  is  sold  by  Fairbanks,  Morse 
&  Co.  It  is  known  as  No.  932  Harvard  Trip,  and  it  comes 
fitted  with  two  six-inch  porcelain  plates.  In  weighing  ink, 
it  should  always  be  handled  on  glass,  porcelain  or  marble. 
Brass  and  iron  are  affected  by  the  chemical  composition  of 
the  ink  itself,  besides  tarnishing  and  rusting.  If  you  weigh 
on  paper,  use  a  parafined  or  oil  paper,  as  it  is  difficult  to 
scrape  ink  from  ordinary  stock,  to  say  nothing  of  the  danger 
of  getting  paper-dust  into  it. 

In  arranging  a  color-mixing  department  for  your  own 
experiments,  or  for  your  pressroom,  find  a  bench  or  table  of 
suitable  height ;  lay  on  it  an  old  imposition-stone,  or  a  piece 
of  plate-glass,  about  3  feet  wide  and  4  feet  long ;  place  your 
scales  at  the  back,  and  fix  a  rack  for  a  dozen  ink-spatulas 
above.  The  lower  part  of  the  bench  may  be  used  for  storing 
the  inks  used  in  mixing  colors.    For  the  neutral-gray  value- 

97 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

scale  you  need  two  inks  only  —  a  neutral  white  and  an 
untoned  engraver's  hand-press  black.  Any  untoned  black, 
of  course,  will  answer,  but  engraver's  proofing-black  is 
ground  with  more  care  and  represents  the  maximum  amount 
of  density.  The  ink-spatulas  are  more  pliable  than  ink- 
knives,  and  you  will  find  it  advisable  to  buy  at  least  six  of 
each  size.  For  the  convenience  of  those  who  may  take  up 
these  experiments,  I  will  group  the  materials  I  would  advise 
buying,  giving  the  size  and  cost : 

One  piece  of  marble  or  plate  glass,  3  feet  wide,  4  feet 

long.    Buy  it  secondhand $3.00 

One  No.  932  Harvard  Trip  Scale,  Fairbanks,  Morse  & 

Co 7.50 

One  set  brass-knob  weights  in  open  block,  500  grams 

to  1  gram,  Fairbanks,  Morse  &  Co 3.50 

Six  5-inch  spatulas 1.12 

Six  2%-inch  palette  knives 90 

Twelve  5-ounce  Gill's  plain  seamless  ointment  boxes. 
Get  these  from  your  druggist,  who  can  order  them 
from  his  wholesaler,  or  buy  direct  from  a  can  fac- 
tory    25 

Five  pounds  Neutral  White,  50  cents  per  pound 2.50 

One  pound  Engravei's'  Hand  Press  Black  No.  2 3.00 

One  formula  book  —  make  it  yourself 2.00 

Fig.  39  illustrates  such  an  equipment,  excepting  the  size 
of  the  table. 

In  adding  the  formula-book,  I  take  it  for  granted  that 
any  printer  making  the  investment  just  mentioned  will  want 
to  use  this  equipment  for  his  every-day  color-matching,  as 
well  as  weighing  up  a  few  experiments.  The  formula-book 
should  be  made  in  duplicate  in  some  such  form  as  indi- 
cated in  Fig.  40.  One  copy  of  the  formula,  which  is  perfo- 
rated, should  be  pinned  to  the  job-ticket,  after  it  has  been 
carefully  copied  on  the  duplicate  or  permanent  record.  In 
our  factory  we  have  found  it  convenient  to  have  the 
formula-book  made  up  in  duplicate,  ten  on  a  page,  and  num- 
bered consecutively.  If  you  depend  on  numbering  when  you 
tear  out  the  formula-slip,  it  is  a  very  easy  matter  to  become 
confused  and  use  the  same  formula-number  for  two  differ- 
ent matches.    We  have  also  found  that  it  pays  to  save  a  small 

98 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

half-ounce  sample  in  a  flat  ointment-box  of  each  formula- 
number,  no  matter  how  many  times  it  may  be  duplicated. 
The  original  sample  is  saved  indefinitely  and  is  filed  away  in 
a  flat  drawer,  just  large  enough  to  hold  one  hundred  sam- 
ples, arranged  ten  by  ten.  The  duplicates  are  saved  for  a 
year  at  least  and  then  are  thrown  away. 


Fig.   39. 


Whether  it  pays  a  printer  to  do  his  own  color-matching 
for  jobs  requiring  over  five  pounds  of  ink,  depends  upon  his 
location.  If  he  is  in  a  large  city,  the  right  inkman  can  do  it 
better  and  more  quickly,  but  the  printer  should  select  the 
inkman  who  uses  the  most  care  in  weighing  and  preserving 
his  formulas.    On  large  runs,  or  jobs  that  are  repeated  in 

99 


COLOR  AND  ITS  APPLICATION  TO  PRINTING. 

the  same  color-scheme,  it  will  always  pay  both  the  city  and 
country  printer  to  give  the  inkman  the  order  and  have  the 
ink  made  up  to  exactly  suit  the  stock  used.  For  jobs  requir- 
ing only  a  pound  or  so  of  ink,  even  the  city  printer  will  find 
it  convenient  to  do  the  mixing  himself,  and  the  country 
printer  is  forced  to  match  his  own  colors,  on  account  of  lack 


Parts 

Name  of  Ink 

No.  1 

Date 

Job  No. 

Firm 

Mixed  by 

Pounds 

Price  per  Lb. 

Amount 

Charged  by 

Fig.   40. 


of  time.  The  scale  I  specified  has  a  capacity  of  only  one 
pound,  which  is  suflficient  for  matching  colors,  and  the  same 
formula  may  be  weighed  a  number  of  times.  For  larger 
quantities  Fairbanks.  Morse  &  Co.  make  a  No.  1216  scale, 
costing  $18,  which  has  a  capacity  of  three  hundred  pounds. 
You  will  notice  that  I  specified  gram  weights.  In  your 
work  you  consider  grams  as  parts,  and  in  Table  III  I  have 
figured  the  equivalent  in  pounds  and  fractions  of  a  pound, 
so  that  when  you  have  completed  your  formula  and  find  you 
have  a  certain  number  of  parts,  you  can  turn  to  this  table 
and  tell  just  how  much  to  charge  up  to  the  job.  For  example, 
you  have  used  230  parts.  This  is  between  %  and  %  of  a 
pound,  roughly  14 ;  at  $1.50  per  pound,  the  charge  would  be 
75  cents,  plus  your  percentage  for  waste  and  handling. 

100 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


TABLE   OF   COMPARISON,    PARTS    (METRIC    SYSTEM)    WITH 
POUNDS  AVOIRDUPOIS. 

1  pound  =:  453.592  grams  —  roughly,  450. 

Rough  equivalents 
Parts  (grams).  Pounds.  in  pounds  and  fractions. 

1 00220 %oo 

2 00440 

3 00661 

4 00881 

5 01102 

6 01322 

7 01543 

8 01763 

9 01984 

10 02204 lio 

20 04409 

30 06613 

40 08818 

50 11023 

60 13227 

70 15432 

80 17636 

90 19841 

100 22046 li 

200 44092 % 

300 66138 % 

400 88184 %o 

500 1.10231 IMo 

600 1.32277 1% 

700 1.54323 ^ 

800 1.76369 1% 

900 1.98415 2 

1,000 2.20462 2H 

2,000 4.40924 4% 

3,000 6.61386 6% 

4,000 8.81848 8% 

5,000 11.02310 1,1 

6,000 13.22772 13ii 

7,000 15.43234 15% 

8,000 17.63696 17% 

9,000 19.84158 19*5 

10,000 22,04621 22 

Table  III. 


101 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Pounds,  ounces  and  fractions  of  an  ounce  are  exceedingly 
unhandy  in  making  trial  formulas,  and  when  you  wish  to 
increase  the  formula  one  is  obliged  to  change  pounds  to 
ounces  and  ounces  to  the  smallest  fraction  of  an  ounce  used. 
Then  you  multiply  by  the  right  number,  to  get  the  desired 
increase,  and  begin  again  to  divide  up  your  sixty-fourth 
ounces,  if  such  be  the  case,  in  ounces,  and  in  turn  into 
pounds.    For  example,  take  the  following  formula : 

White    l-%4  ounces. 

Black %4  ounce. 

Wanted  2  lbs. 

It  will  take  you  quite  a  little  time  to  figure  it  out.  Let  me 
express  the  same  ratio  according  to  Table  III : 

White    89  parts. 

Black  1  part. 

Total    90  parts. 

Ninety  parts  is  about  Va  of  a  pound  (.19836  exactly),  there- 
fore, two  pounds  would  be  ten  times  as  many  parts  (Vo  into 
2  =  10),  or 

White 890  parts. 

Black    10  parts. 

900  parts,  or  2  lbs. 

About  the  only  objection  to  the  part  system  just  de- 
scribed is  that  ink  is  not  bought  nor  sold  by  the  kilogram 
(one  thousand  parts  or  one  thousand  grams),  but  by  the 
pound,  requiring  one  extra  multiplication  in  order  to  con- 
nect parts  with  the  avoirdupois  pound.  The  ideal  system  to 
use  in  handling  inks  is  to  divide  the  pound  into  one  thousand 
parts,  and  then,  no  matter  how  complex  your  formula  may 
be,  you  can  increase  or  decrease  it  to  any  desired  amount 
with  one  multiplication  only.  My  first  experience  in  the 
printing-ink  business  was  in  figuring  out  formulas  based  on 
pounds,  ounces  and  fractions  of  an  ounce.  If  a  man  had 
purchased  seven  pounds  of  a  complex  formula,  and  wanted 
exactly  twenty  pounds  more,  it  would  sometimes  take  a  half 
an  hour  to  figure  the  formula  accurately  and  verify  it. 

102 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Often  the  printer  had  used  up  all  of  the  first  lot  before  he 
had  an  opportunity  to  telephone  the  repeat  order,  and  his 
cylinder  press,  as  a  consequence,  was  standing  all  the  time 
we  were  figuring,  weighing  and  delivering  it. 

My  first  thought  was  of  the  metric  system,  but  if  it  were 
adopted  it  would  necessitate  every  man  about  the  ofl^ice  and 
factory  becoming  so  familiar  with  it  that  he  could  take  an 
order  in  pounds  and  write  out  the  order  in  kilograms.  So  I 
decided  to  have  special  weights  made  up  which  would  use  the 
pound  as  a  basis,  but  would  divide  the  pound  into  tenths, 
hundredths  and  thousandths.  I  figured  the  equivalents  of 
the  different  units  required  very  accurately  in  the  metric 
system,  using  the  nearest  weight  in  either  system  and  filing 
it  down  until  it  was  exactly  the  decimal  part  of  a  pound 
required.  There  was  naturally  some  opposition  to  changing 
our  system  of  weighing,  but  we  are  now  using  the  decimal 
system  in  all  of  our  branches,  even  with  the  large  No.  1216 
scales,  and  it  saves  us  an  immense  amount  of  time.  Such  a 
set  of  weights  costs  a  few  dollars  more  than  the  set  of  gram 
weights  specified,  on  account  of  the  extra  work  in  stand- 
ardizing. 

The  same  example  expressed  in  the  decimal  system 
results  in  the  following  formula : 

White 089  pound. 

Black    001  pound. 

Total   090  pound. 

To  increase  the  formula  to  any  desired  quantity  it  is  neces- 
sary to  make  one  multiplication  only,  and,  as  a  rule,  this 
multiplication  can  be  accomplished  by  merely  moving  the 
point  to  the  right  and  multiplying  or  dividing  by  simple 
numbers,  such  as  two  or  three.  If  you  care  to  have  your 
formula  come  out  exact,  you  divide  the  total  of  your  trial 
formula,  in  this  case  .090  pounds,  into  the  number  of  pounds 
desired,  and  the  result  will  be  the  exact  multiplier  which  is 
used  with  every  item  of  your  trial  formula.  For  two  pounds, 
.090  into  two  pounds  results  in  22.22  -f ,  but  22  is  near 
enough  for  practical  purposes.  Multiplying  by  this  number 
gives  us : 

103 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

White   1.958  pounds. 

Black    022  pound. 


1.980  pounds. 

For  those  who  have  trained  themselves  to  think  in  ounces 
and  are  interested  in  adopting  the  decimal  system,  I  add 
Table  IV,  which  shows  ounces  and  fractions  as  decimal  parts 
of  a  pound. 


CONVERSION  OF  OUNCES  AND  FRACTIONAL  PARTS  OF  AN  OUNCE 
INTO  DECIMAL  PARTS  OF  A  POUND. 


16  oz 

....1.000 

5 

oz 

.313 

%6 

oz 

...   .035 

15  oz 

938 

4 

oz 

.250 

1^ 

oz 

...   .031 

14  oz 

875 

812 

3 
2 

oz 

.188 
.125 

%6 
% 

oz 

oz 

...   .027 

13  oz 

oz 

...   .023 

12  oz 

750 

1 

oz 

.063 

%6 

oz 

...   .020 

11  oz 

688 

1%6 

oz 

.   .059 

^4 

oz 

...   .016 

10  oz 

625 

'A 

oz 

.055 

%6 

oz 

...   .012 

9  oz 

563 

500 

1%6 

oz 

.051 
.   .047 

%6 

oz 

oz 

. . .   .008 

8  oz 

oz 

...   .004 

7  oz 

438 

"Ae 

oz 

.   .043 

%2 

oz 

...   .002 

6  oz 

375 

ate. 

% 

oz 

Table  IV. 

.   .039 

ye4 

oz 

...   .001* 

*  Approxiir 

In  Fig.  41  I  have  indicated  the  relative  proportion  of 
white  and  black  for  each  ten  divisions  of  the  decimal  value- 
scale,  and  have  indicated  the  older  artist's  classification  of 
values.  In  constructing  a  decimal-value  scale  by  weight,  the 
first  point  to  determine  is  the  proportion  of  black  and  white, 
to  give  middle  value.  I  have  found  that,  in  a  number  of 
experiments,  40  white  to  1  of  black  was  an  average  ratio, 
using  the  inks  specified  in  the  list.  Of  course,  the  value  of 
the  printed  color  depends  so  much  on  the  amount  carried  on, 
that,  with  the  same  ink,  it  is  possible  to  obtain  a  variance  of 
ten  points  in  value.  My  40  to  1  mixture,  with  an  average 
impression,  showed  a  variance  of  about  three  points,  when 
tested  with  a  photometer.  Of  course,  if  you  are  not  using 
the  same  inks,  or  if  the  density  of  either  ink  varies,  you  will 
have  a  different  proportion  for  middle  value.  A  good  way 
to  check  your  various  attempts  is  to  buy  a  sheet  of  Milton 


104 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


Decimal  Value  Scale 

Black=0  Middle  Value=SO  Whitc^lOO 


White 
(Wt) 


High  Light 
(HLt) 


•loo- 


ps- 


90- 


85- 


80- 


Light. 
(Lt) 


•75- 


70- 


Low  Light 
(LLt)    ■      60 


65 


62'A 


55- 


45 


Middle 

Value 50 

(M) 

4(1  — 
High  Dark _..,^ 

(H  D)  35^ 


30- 


Dark 
(D) 


Low  Dark 
(LD) 


Black 
(Blk)' 


■25 


20- 


15- 


10- 


Relative 
Proportion 


White 


100 


90 


80 


70 


60 


50 


40 


30 


20 


10 


Black 


0 


10 


20 


30 


40 


50 


60 


70 


90 


100 


Proportions 
by  Weight 

Basis:  Tinctorial 

Power  of  Black  to 

White.  40  to  1. 


White 


360 


320 


280 


240 


200 


160 


120 


80 


40 


Black 


Fig.  41. 


105 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Bradley's  white  and  black  school-paper;  then  lay  your 
printed  sample  of  middle  value  between  the  white  and  the 
black  paper  and  see  whether  the  contrast  is  greater  with 
either  one.  It  is  well  not  to  tire  the  eyes,  as  a  fresh  eye  can 
often  detect  differences  in  value  when  a  fatigued  eye  can  not. 
In  scientific  work  with  a  photometer  they  make  readings 
with  each  eye  and  take  the  mean,  as  the  two  eyes  are  seldom 
equally  sensitive. 

After  you  have  determined  the  proportion  for  middle 
value,  for  example,  40  to  1,  you  substitute  this  ratio  in  the 
"  Relative  Proportion  "  column  of  the  table.  In  the  value  of 
90  the  relative  proportion  is  90  to  10,  or  9  to  1,  and,  since 
it  takes  40  of  white  to  equal  1  of  black,  multiply  your  9  by  40, 
which  gives  you  the  proportion  by  weight  of  360  to  1. 

In  weighing  inks,  always  start  by  weighing  out  the 
lighter  color,  or  the  white,  first.  It  is  well  also  in  weighing 
up  the  decimal-value  scale  to  start  at  the  bottom  and  weigh 
up  the  value  of  ten  first,  as  the  amounts  involved  are  smaller 
than  anywhere  else  in  the  scale,  and  if  you  make  a  few  mis- 
takes you  will  still  have  enough  white  left  to  complete  it. 
In  fact,  weighing  the  scale  in  parts  and  using  the  propor- 
tions by  weight  indicated  will  require  about  four  pounds, 
which  does  not  allow  for  very  much  waste  if  you  have  pur- 
chased only  five  pounds. 

After  weighing  the  white,  scrape  it  off  the  porcelain 
plate,  one  spatulaful  at  a  time,  and  place  it  on  the  slab,  not 
in  a  can.  The  best  way  to  get  every  particle  off  the  plate  is 
to  scrape  the  spatula  on  a  second  spatula,  held  in  the  left 
hand.  Then  weigh  the  black,  get  it  on  the  slab  the  same  way 
and  mix  a  little  of  the  white  with  the  black,  being  sure  that 
every  trace  of  the  black  unites  with  the  white,  forming  an 
even  gray,  which  constant  working  does  not  show  to  con- 
tain specks  or  streaks.  Then  shove  this  gray  mixture  into 
the  remaining  white  and  mix  again  by  pressing  the  spatula 
up  and  down  rapidly,  gathering  the  mass  together  occasion- 
ally by  scraping  it  around  its  edge  toward  the  center.  It  is 
well  to  use  two  spatulas  in  mixing  also,  holding  one  in  the 
left  hand  two  or  three  inches  above  the  mixture,  and  scraping 
the  ink  on  it  with  the  other  spatula.     Do  not  be  afraid  to 

106 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

mix  long  and  carefully,  as  mixing  by  hand  is  a  difficult 
matter,  especially  if  one  of  the  inks  is  very  heavy-bodied. 

Some  inks  unite  with  other  materials  only  after  the 
entire  mass  has  been  warmed  by  the  heat  generated  in  mix- 
ing vigorously  or  by  grinding  on  a  mill.  In  making  my 
experiments  with  white  and  engraver's  hand-press  black, 
each  mixture  was  ground  three  times,  to  insure  obtaining 
the  full  tinctorial  power  of  the  black.  A  mill  is  not  neces- 
sary, however,  if  you  use  care.  In  making  up  formulas 
always  mix  the  ingredients  in  the  same  order,  as  often  there 
is  a  slight  chemical  change,  which  causes  a  noticeable  change 
of  shade  when  compared  with  the  same  formula  mixed  in  a 
different  order.    This  is  especially  true  of  very  delicate  tints. 


107 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


CHAPTER  XL 

COLOR  MATCHING. 

XN  Chapter  X  I  describe  the  equipment  necessary  to  do 
accurate  color-mixing  in  the  average  pressroom,  but  I  do 
not  take  up  the  question  of  how  many  colors  it  is  advisa- 
ble to  carry  in  stock.  Many  printers  buy  a  pound  or  so  of 
every  color  shown  by  the  inkman  without  regard  as  to  how 
and  when  they  may  use  them.  The  result  is  that  the  ink  shelf 
shows  more  variety  than  usefulness.  Each  printer  must  lay 
in  a  supply  according  to  his  own  needs,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  outline  one  list  to  fit  many  cases.  If  your  work  is  of  high 
grade  on  enamel  and  bond  paper,  it  follows  that  you  must 
have  a  heavy,  high-grade  half-tone  black  for  enamel  paper 
and  also  a  softer  half-tone  black  to  use  in  reducing,  if  the 
heavier  one  picks  the  stock.  Then,  too,  a  brilliant  light  red 
is  necessary  to  use  for  decoration  or  initial  letters  on  enamel 
papers.  This  red  should  be  in  middle  value.  Such  a  red  is 
known  on  the  market  as  flaming  scarlet.  For  the  bond  paper 
you  should  have  a  heavy  job  or  bond  black  and  a  light  or 
yellow  red  of  the  same  color  as  the  enamel-red,  but  heavier 
body  —  a  job  flaming  scarlet.  The  kind  of  half-tone  work 
done  by  the  printer,  or,  in  other  words,  his  ability  to  fit  the 
ink  to  the  stock  after  the  job  is  properly  made  ready,  and 
the  proper  use  of  the  right  red,  often  makes  the  reputation 
of  the  printer.  In  these  two  inks  at  least  it  is  advisable  to 
carry  two  bodies  in  stock.  Other  colors  may  be  made  heav- 
ier by  adding  a  heavy  varnish,  and  softened  by  reducing- 
varnish  or  compound,  and  the  customer  will  not  discriminate 
so  carefully.  A  few  pounds  of  the  high-chroma  lake  inks 
should  be  kept  in  stock  also,  as  well  as  bronze-red,  bronze- 
blue,  and  vermilion,  but  in  matching  colors  the  most  impor- 
tant ten  pigments  are  the  fundamentals  at  their  highest 
chromas,  shown  in  Plate  III,  and  these  same  five  colors  — 

108 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

red,  yellow,  green,  blue,  and  purple  —  reduced  in  chroma 
until  nearing  neutralization,  and  lowered  in  value,  colors 
similar  to  those  shown  in  the  bottom  line  of  Fig.  A,  Plate  II. 
With  these  ten  colors,  and  white  and  black,  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  all  colors  may  be  obtained  quickly  and  accurately. 
The  exceptions  are  the  high-chroma  and  lake  colors,  some  of 
which  are  mentioned  above,  and  the  high-chroma  colors  lying 
between  the  five  fundamentals  in  Plate  III.  Mixing  two 
colors  in  order  to  produce  a  third  always  lowers  the  chroma 
of  the  mixed  color  below  the  average  chroma  of  its  compo- 
nents. This  is  due,  as  explained  before,  to  the  fact  that  no 
pigment  reflects  the  rays  of  its  own  hue  alone,  but  many 
others,  and  when  these  "  stray "  rays  are  mixed  with  the 
"  stray  "  rays  of  the  second  color,  some  neutral  gray  is  the 
result. 

In  locating  the  five  fundamentals  mentioned,  among  the 
unclassified  and  unstandardized  colors  on  the  market  a  com- 


12  STEP  SEQUENCE 
YO  Y  YG 


jr     l^ 


LA 


SPECTRAL  SEQUENCE  OF  COLOR  IN  PIGMENTS  WITH  PURPLE  ADDED 


GY  G 

decimal  sequence 
Fig.   42. 


parison  of  the  old  twelve-step  sequence  with  the  decimal 
circuit  will  be  instructive.  If  we  start  with  red,  yellow, 
and  blue,  and  by  subdividing  get  red,  orange,  yellow,  green, 
blue,  and  purple,  and  then  add  the  intermediates,  the  twelve 
steps  will  compare  with  the  colors  of  the  decimal  circuit  as 
indicated  in  Fig.  42.  Only  a  glance  is  necessary  to  show 
that  the  twelve-step  sequence  not  only  gives  the  wrong  com- 
plementaries,  as  explained  previously,  but  that  there  are 
gaps  and  inequalities  of  spacing  necessary  in  order  to  make 
a  given  color-name,  such  as  yellow,  occur  over  the  color  it 
represents,  using  the  decimal  circuit  as  a  standard. 


109 


COLOR   AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

Those  who  doubt  may  verify  the  standard  for  themselves 
by  placing  the  five  hues  indicated  in  Plate  III  around  a 
sphere,  and  if  each  color  be  brought  to  the  same  value  and 
chroma  they  produce  a  neutral  gray  when  the  sphere  is 
rotated.  If  we  select  the  five  colors  at  a  chroma  of  50  and  a 
value  of  50,  the  neutral  gray  will  have  a  value  of  50 ;  if  the 
colors  are  selected  at  a  value  of  70,  the  neutral  gray  will 
have  a  value  of  70,  proving  without  a  doubt  that  the  hues  of 
the  five  fundamentals  are  equidistant  from  each  other,  or  a 
colored  gray  would  be  the  result  of  rotation.  Such  spheres 
have  been  put  on  the  market  by  Mr.  A.  H.  Munsell  for  use 
in  schools  where,  owing  to  lack  of  apparatus,  it  would  be 
difficult  for  the  teacher  to  standardize  the  colors  for  class 
demonstration. 

The  same  experiment  may  be  tried  with  the  twelve-step 
sequence,  and  the  result  verifies  the  inequalities  shown  in 
Fig.  42;  for,  instead  of  a  neutral  gray,  rotation  shows  an 
excess  of  yellow-red. 

You  will  notice  that  the  red  in  the  twelve-step  sequence 
is  not  so  near  yellow  as  in  the  decimal  circuit,  the  yellow  is 
a  little  nearer  green.  (The  yellow  of  the  twelve-step 
sequence  actually  occurs  as  indicated  by  the  black  arrow- 
head which  is  connected  by  dotted  lines  with  the  position 
where  yellow  should  fall  were  the  twelve-step  circuit  cor- 
rect. This  same  method  of  indicating  the  actual  position, 
as  opposed  to  the  theoretical  position,  is  followed  in  the 
other  colors)  ;  the  green  is  yellower  than  in  the  decimal 
circuit,  the  blue  more  purplish  and  the  purple  a  trifle  nearer 
red.  The  most  marked  difference  is  in  the  blue,  and  those 
who  have  always  thought  of  blue  as  having  a  hue  approxi- 
mating ultramarine  experience  a  distinct  shock  when  shown 
the  blue  of  the  decimal  circuit.  "  It's  blue-green  and  not 
blue,"  is  a  common  remark;  but  if  a  true  blue-green  is 
placed  on  one  side  of  it,  and  purple-blue  on  the  other,  the 
correctness  of  its  hue  is  evident.  Moreover,  the  decimal 
blue,  besides  fulfilling  the  requirements  for  a  blue  exactly 
midway  between  green  and  purple,  has  the  greatest  possi- 
bilities as  an  artistic  color.  It  is  found  in  Oriental  rugs, 
Japanese  prints,  and  other  works  of  art.    At  a  recent  test 

110 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

made  by  a  large  class  of  art  students  at  the  University  of 
Chicago,  a  blue  of  this  hue  was  almost  unanimously  selected 
as  being  the  most  satisfying  of  all  blues. 

With  these  ten  pigments  at  our  command,  color-matching 
becomes  a  matter  of  judging  the  predominating  hue  of  the 
color  we  wish  to  imitate,  matching  the  hue  and  then  adjust- 
ing the  chroma  and  value  of  our  mixture.  To  judge  the 
predominating  hue  we  must  forget  such  terms  as  brown, 
russet,  buff,  citron,  sage,  slate,  plum,  etc.,  and  substitute  for 
brown,  red-gray,  yellow-red,  gray  or  yellow-gray,  as  the 
case  may  be;  buff  becomes  a  yellow-red-gray,  having  a 
higher  value  than  the  red-gray  we  formerly  called  brown, 
while  sage,  slate,  and  plum  become  green,  blue,  and  purple 
grays.  It  is  obvious  that  the  color  to  be  matched  may  not 
fall  exactly  on  one  of  the  five  colors  we  are  using  as  a  basis, 
nor  yet  exactly  half-way  between  any  two,  but  if  the  general 
hue,  for  example,  is  red  inclining  toward  yellow  rather  than 
purple,  by  adding  yellow  to  red  in  small  proportions  we  may 
stop  at  any  point  we  desire.  Let  us  suppose  the  hue  of  the 
unknown  to  be  a  hue  half-way  between  red  and  yellow-red, 
and  the  strong  chroma  colors  we  have  used  in  mixing  have 
produced  the  correct  hue  but  have  given  it  too  high  a  chroma. 
What  then?  Either  we  must  add  a  small  proportion  of  the 
complement  of  this  color,  or  mix  together  a  little  of  the 
neutralized  red  and  yellow  (in  the  same  proportion  as  we 
used  of  the  high-chroma  colors) ,  and  add  this  to  our  formula. 
The  proper  complement  is  shown  by  a  glance  at  the  color 
solid :  the  complement  of  red  is  blue-green,  that  of  yellow-red, 
blue ;  so  that  if  we  are  to  add  the  complementary  color  to  our 
formula  it  consists  in  a  mixture  of  blue  and  blue-green.  But 
to  get  just  the  right  amount  of  each  color!  There  lies  the 
difficulty.  A  trifle  too  much  blue,  and  we  have  changed  the 
hue  of  the  ink,  when  it  was  our  intention  to  lower  the  chroma 
only.  The  usefulness  of  a  neutralized  color  for  each  of  the 
high-chroma  fundamentals  is  evident,  for  no  matter  how 
much  red-gray  we  add  to  red  the  hue  is  not  altered,  but  pro- 
ceeds in  a  straight  line  toward  the  neutral  axis  of  the  color 
solid.  In  matching  full-strength  colors  the  question  of  value 
may  be  left  to  the  last,  as  the  five  fundamentals  are  natural 

111 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

in  their  respective  values  and  by  mixture  will  produce  nat- 
ural values.  By  natural  values  I  mean  that  the  decimal  red 
is  what  we  describe  as  a  full-strength  red  without  any 
admixture  of  gray.  It  occurs  (Plate  III)  at  40,  yellow  at  80, 
green  at  50,  and  blue  and  purple  at  30. 

Where  the  unknown  is  a  tint,  value  should  be  considered 
first,  and  the  white  should  be  weighed  out  first.  Starting 
the  other  way  often  means  that  by  the  time  you  have  added 
enough  white  to  get  the  correct  value,  you  have  twice  as 
much  ink  as  is  necessary  for  the  job.  A  word  about  chroma, 
when  it  comes  to  mixing :  Red  and  yellow  in  the  five  funda- 
mentals have  chromas  of  100  and  90  respectively,  so  that  in 
weighing  equal  parts  you  may  be  confident  that  the  hue  of 
the  mixture  will  be  about  midway  between  the  two  colors. 
Green  has  a  chroma  of  60,  blue  50,  and  purple  60;  these 
also  may  be  mixed  with  each  other  without  allowance  for 
inequality  of  chroma.  But  when  yellow  and  green  are  used 
to  produce  green-yellow,  a  greater  weight  of  green  must  be 
used  than  yellow,  in  order  to  offset  the  higher  chroma  of 
yellow.  The  same  rule  applies  in  mixing  red,  with  a  chroma 
of  100,  with  purple  of  60  chroma;  purple  must  be  used  in  the 
larger  quantity  if  we  wish  to  produce  a  red-purple  midway 
between  the  two  colors  in  hue. 

The  color-matcher  must  learn  to  see  the  presence  of  a 
high-chroma  color,  or  much  time  will  be  wasted  before  he 
finds  that  he  is  on  the  wrong  track.  Yellow-lake  or  Indian- 
yellow  can  not  be  imitated  by  the  fundamental  yellow, 
neither  will  the  fundamental  red  and  yellow  produce  Persian- 
orange.  Emerald  and  velvet  greens,  royal  and  ultramarine 
blues,  royal  purples  and  magenta  lakes  are  other  examples 
of  colors  that  can  not  be  imitated  by  mixing.  You  must  have 
each  and  every  one  of  these  colors  in  stock  if  you  are  to 
accurately  match  a  color  in  which  they  have  been  used. 

A  word  about  accurate  color-matching.  This  is  always 
exceedingly  difficult,  owing  to  the  difference  between  the 
stock  used  for  the  job  and  that  submitted  by  the  engraver. 
If  you  are  dealing  with  the  engraver  direct,  insist  that  he 
pull  proofs  on  the  identical  stock  you  have  bought  for  the 
job.    Matching  an  artist's  water-color  proof  is  in  many  cases 

112 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

absolutely  impossible,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  artist  may 
carry  on  his  color  much  heavier  than  you  can  lay  it  on  with 
a  press.  In  the  use  of  high-chroma  colors,  too,  the  artist 
and  engraver  seem  to  conspire  against  the  printer,  often  to 
no  purpose,  as  far  as  the  beauty  of  the  design  is  concerned. 
What  the  printer  should  educate  his  customer  to  look  for 
in  the  finished  work  is  not  the  arbitrary  following  of  an 
unstandardized  and  sometimes  undesirable  color-scheme, 
but  the  beauty  of  balanced-color  relations.  When  you  proof 
the  job,  show  it  to  the  customer  with  an  enthusiasm  as  to 
your  interpretation  of  the  right  color-scheme,  rather  than 
with  an  apology  for  not  quite  matching  the  artist's  or  engra- 
ver's proof.  Remember  that  the  artist  and  engraver,  if 
asked  to  duplicate  the  color-schemes  without  the  proof  to  go 
by,  would  produce  only  an  approximation  of  what  they 
formerly  considered  desirable,  if  they  did  not  substitute  a 
new  color-scheme  altogether.  The  case  is  similar  to  colored 
etchings.  After  the  plate  is  finished  the  artist  pulls  many 
proofs  in  different  color-schemes,  and  it  is  hard  for  him  or 
any  one  else  to  say  which  is  better.  The  most  he  can  say  is 
that  "  Personally,  I  like  this  one  best  of  all."  Try  then  to 
educate  your  customer  to  the  fact  that  it  is  possible  for 
the  printer  to  produce  something  better  than  the  proof 
submitted.  The  only  question  you  should  permit  him  to 
discuss  is  whether  or  not  your  proofs  please  him,  and  in 
producing  pleasing  color-schemes  standardized  colors  such 
as  those  I  have  indicated  are  greatly  to  be  desired  as  opposed 
to  the  unstandardized  relations  of  miscellaneous  high- 
chroma  pigments. 


113 


COLOR   AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PRESSROOM  DIFFICULTIES. 

WITH  the  press  and  rollers  in  perfect  condition  the 
problem  of  good  printing  is  to  adapt  the  ink  to  the 
paper  in  body  and  drying  qualities.    On  long  runs 
and  particular  jobs  it  is  always  well  to  try  out  a  few  sheets 
of  the  stock,  examining  them  carefully  next  day  before  begin- 
ning the  regular  run.    Further,  it  is  well  to  look  through  the 


Via.   4.- 


Fifi.    44. 


stock  before  it  is  cut,  as  often  one  side  of  the  sheet  may  have 
a  perfect  printing  surface,  while  the  other  is  unevenly  coated. 
Fig.  43  shows  a  cut  taken  from  one  side  of  an  actual  job 
and  Fig.  44  the  results  of  defective  coating  on  the  other 
side.  Of  course,  the  paperman  would  have  been  glad  to  have 
replaced  the  imperfect  stock  had  he  been  notified  before  it 

114 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

was  cut,  but  with  half  the  job  run  it  was  up  to  the  printer  to 
find  some  ink  which  would  overcome  the  difficulty,  which 
meant  a  considerable  loss  of  time  and  probably  the  profit  on 
the  job.  To  get  the  best  results  the  body  of  an  ink  should  be 
as  heavy  as  the  stock  will  stand.  This  is  particularly  true  in 
half-tone  printing,  and  it  is  always  advisable  to  carry  two 


>1% 

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1 

bodies  in  stock,  in  blacks  at  least  —  both  of  the  same  high 
quality,  but  ground  in  one  case  in  a  heavy  varnish  and  in  the 
other  in  a  soft  varnish.  This  point  was  mentioned  in  the 
last  chapter,  but  its  importance  can  not  be  overemphasized. 
If  the  pressroom  is  not  at  the  correct  temperature  of  80°,  or 
if  the  stock  is  not  hard  enough  to  stand  the  heavy  ink,  a 


115 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

"  picked  "  sheet,  such  as  Fig.  45,  will  be  the  result.  Instantly 
we  should  add  a  little  of  the  soft  half-tone  and  try  another 
impression.  If  the  ink  still  picks,  add  a  little  more,  and  in  a 
short  time  we  have  solved  the  difficulty,  as  illustrated  in 
Fig.  46.  Compare  this  result  with  that  gotten  by  adding 
reducing  varnish  to  soften  the  ink.  Fig.  47.    Some  printers 


H^^^^^l 

^^^^r    X      ^    *        '^^^l 

^^^^^L       '                   ^^H 

^^H^   ^-  4^^| 

use  a  soft  black  instead  of  varnish,  but  buy  the  soft  black 
for  medium-grade  work.  The  result  of  adding  this  black  to 
the  high-grade  half-tone  black,  while  not  as  bad  as  if  varnish 
had  been  used,  never  produces  the  best  job.  The  soft  half- 
tone should  be  of  such  quality  that  if  the  coating  of  the  stock 
is  unusually  weak,  or  the  room  cold,  it  may  be  run  straight 

116 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 


with  as  good  results  as  a  heavy  half-tone  would  give  on 
harder  stock  on  a  warmer  day.  If  you  use  a  color  on  half- 
tones, be  sure  the  inkman  gives  you  a  heavy-bodied  ink.  If 
it  picks,  you  may  reduce  it  with  a  little  thin  varnish  or  com- 
pound; or  even  better,  a  little  tint  base;  it  is  harder  to  add 
body  than  to  take  it  out. 


Just  what  you  wish  to  accomplish  with  regard  to  the 
drying  of  an  ink  depends  on  whether  the  color  is  the  only 
one  to  be  run,  or  whether  other  colors  are  to  be  printed  on 
top  of  it,  and  how  soon.  In  the  case  of  the  one-color  job, 
hard  drying  is  of  no  consequence  save  for  the  ink  drying  on 
the  rollers.     Inks  that  tend  to  rub  off  wet,  such  as  black, 

117 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

bronze-blue,  and  dark  colors,  which,  as  a  rule,  lay  smoothly, 
require  a  thin  dryer,  such  as  Japan,  to  help  pull  the  color  into 
the  stock.  Inks  that  do  not  lay  so  well,  such  as  light  greens, 
light  blues  and  purples,  have  a  tendency  to  powder ;  that  is, 
the  varnish  goes  into  the  stock  and  leaves  the  color  on  the 
surface.  These  colors  need  a  heavy,  or  concentrated,  dryer, 
which  will  bind  the  color  to  the  varnish  on  the  surface  of  the 
stock. 

In  running  process  or  other  color  work  where  one  color 
is  printed  on  top  of  another,  care  should  be  taken  that  the 
first  color  does  not  dry  in  spots.  This  is  often  caused  by  the 
stock  being  unevenly  coated,  and  is  one  of  the  most  serious 
difficulties  which  the  pressman  can  encounter.  The  term 
"  crystallization,"  as  applied  to  the  yellow  of  a  three-color 
job  drying  too  hard,  is  often  improperly  used  to  convey  the 
idea  of  this  unequal  drying,  or  "  drying  in  spots."  If  a 
color  dries  too  hard,  but  dries  evenly,  there  are  products  on 
the  market  which  if  mixed  with  the  second  color  will  make 
it  "  take."  Or  if  the  first  color  is  not  dry  enough  it  is  possi- 
ble to  run  the  same  plate  again,  adding  more  dryer,  but  in 
the  case  of  the  uneven  drying,  the  only  solution  of  the  diffi- 
culty is  to  produce  an  even  surface  by  running  a  solid  tint- 
block  the  full  size  of  the  cuts,  using  magnesia  or  tint-base  to 
which  dryer  has  been  added,  and  then  start  the  job  over 
again. 

In  colorwork  one  color  should  follow  another  about 
twenty-four  hours  apart.  If  this  is  not  possible,  owing  to 
the  lack  of  presses,  a  compound  should  be  added  to  the  first 
color  in  proportion  to  the  length  of  time  which  will  elapse 
before  the  second  color  will  be  printed.  Compounds  suitable 
for  this  work  should  contain  nondrying  substances.  Gener- 
ally one  pound  of  compound  to  ten  of  color  will  present  a 
good  printing  surface  a  week  later,  while  one-half  a  pound 
of  compound  will  allow  a  delay  of  twenty-four  hours  in  fol- 
lowing with  the  second  color. 

The  stock  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  drying  of 
any  ink,  and  it  is  always  better,  as  I  said  before,  to  try 
out  a  few  sheets  before  starting  the  regular  run.  One  of  the 
best  color  houses  in  the  country  makes  it  a  practice  of  trying 

118 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

out  a  new  ink  on  all  the  stocks  it  uses  on  colorwork,  and,  if 
the  ink  dries  properly  even  on  one  stock,  it  is  not  considered 
at  fault  in  drying  quality,  and  is  adapted  to  the  other  stocks 
by  manipulation.  In  other  words,  the  inkman  is  not  ex- 
pected to  furnish  an  ink  for  colorwork  that  will  dry  on  any 
stock  at  random.  The  proposition  of  fitting  the  ink  to  the 
paper  is  the  printer's  duty,  unless  he  submits  the  stock  in 
advance  and  has  the  ink  made  to  order.  With  a  little  prac- 
tice some  idea  of  how  an  ink  is  going  to  dry  on  a  given  stock 
may  be  gained  by  wetting  the  stock  with  the  tongue  and 
watching  the  rapidity  with  which  the  moisture  is  absorbed. 
If  the  absorption  does  not  take  place  at  once,  you  may  be 
sure  that  a  little  dryer  in  the  ink  will  do  no  harm. 

Estimating  the  amount  of  ink  required  is  one  of  the  diffi- 
culties in  making  a  price  in  advance  on  a  given  job.  When 
the  form  is  similar  to  one  with  which  the  printer  is  familiar, 
the  amount  of  black  required  may  be  estimated  with  some 
degree  of  certainty,  but  where  the  form  is  made  up  of  tint- 
blocks  in  color,  the  area  of  the  tint-blocks  should  be  meas- 
ured accurately  and  this  area  subtracted  from  the  total  area 
of  the  form  before  attempting  to  gage  the  percentage  of  the 
balance  of  the  sheet  v/hich  is  covered  by  type-matter.  To 
illustrate,  suppose  the  form  measures  261/2  by  38,  or  roughly, 
a  thousand  square  inches.  Figure  the  amount  of  ink  for  the 
tint-blocks,  and  then  add  to  it  your  estimate  of  the  amount 
of  ink  used  for  type-matter.  With  five  hundred  square 
inches  of  tint  a  thousand  impressions  would  give  an  area  of 
five  hundred  thousand  square  inches.  Dividing  into  this 
area  the  number  of  square  inches  per  pound,  which  the  ink 
is  supposed  to  cover,  will  give  the  number  of  pounds  per 
thousand  impressions.  On  enamel  paper,  inks  will  cover 
from  one  hundred  thousand  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand square  inches  per  pound  —  the  lighter  and  bulkier  the 
ink,  the  greater  the  covering  capacity.  The  writer  has  seen 
only  one  case  where  a  covering  capacity  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  square  inches  was  reached.  In  this  case  the 
tint  was  made  almost  entirely  of  tint-base  with  a  powerful 
pigment  used  as  coloring  material.  Pulp  and  lake  colors 
always  go  further  than  inks  made  from  earth  colors.    In  the 

119 


COLOR  AND   ITS  APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

case  of  heavy-bodied  cover-inks  on  cover-stocks  the  covering 
capacity  is  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  square  inches, 
but  on  enamel  paper  the  printer  ought  to  be  reasonably  sure 
of  his  estimate  in  figuring  this  covering  capacity  per  pound. 
Some  printers  who  use  large  quantities  of  a  given  color  have 
gone  to  the  trouble  of  testing  out  the  covering  capacities  of 
the  various  inks.  They  use  a  tint-block,  10  by  10,  or  one 
hundred  square  inches.  The  test  is  made  by  putting  an 
accurately  weighed  amount  of  ink  in  the  fountain,  for  ex- 
ample, two  pounds,  and  running  until  the  ink  is  exhausted. 
If  the  result  is  two  thousand  sheets,  one  side,  the  covering 
capacity  of  that  ink  is  one  hundred  thousand  square  inches 
per  pound. 

The  more  the  printer  knows  about  his  business,  espe- 
cially about  the  covering  power  of  inks,  the  more  willing  he 
is  to  pay  for  good  material.  In  the  case  of  the  exceptionally 
high  covering  capacity  referred  to  the  printer  was  getting 
only  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  square  inches 
per  pound,  using  a  white  base,  and  by  spending  10  cents  a 
pound  more  for  his  material  he  was  able  to  double  this  cover- 
ing capacity.  Such  great  differences,  of  course,  are  the 
exception,  but  the  intelligent  use  of  the  right  materials  very 
often  will  increase  the  covering  capacity  fifty  per  cent.  The 
most  remarkable  example  of  increasing  the  price  of  an  ink 
and  lowering  the  cost  was  in  the  case  of  a  carton  manu- 
facturer in  Michigan.  He  was  using  eight  pounds  to  the 
thousand  of  a  color,  evidently  improperly  made.  He  paid 
twenty-five  per  cent  more  and  increased  the  covering  capac- 
ity one  hundred  and  twenty  per  cent. 

In  estimating  type-matter,  many  printers  figure  fifteen 
per  cent  solid,  but  as  this  is  a  variable  figure,  the  covering 
power  of  the  ink  in  solids  must  be  ascertained  with  some 
degree  of  accuracy.  To  do  this  it  will  pay  any  printer  to 
make  a  few  tests,  and  to  know  something  about  the  relation 
of  the  body  of  an  ink  to  its  covering  power,  and  the  relation 
of  the  surface  of  the  stock  to  ink  consumption. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  a  full  list  of  all  the  difficulties 
which  may  arise  in  the  pressroom,  as  the  oldest  in  the  busi- 
ness are  constantly  finding  new  problems  to  solve.    In  this 

120 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

list,  however,  there  may  be  some  points  which  are  not  gener- 
ally known : 

Never  compare  a  wet  proof  with  the  copy  as  to  color; 
wait  until  the  proof  dries. 

Never  compare  an  ink  in  the  bulk  with  the  color  to  be 
matched  —  the  undertone  may  be  entirely  different. 

For  hard  stocks  with  a  soft  filler  use  a  long-bodied  stiff 
ink,  as  it  does  not  "  squash  "  out  on  the  edges  of  the  type. 

Do  not  use  vermilion,  which  is  made  from  mercuric 
sulphid,  with  electrotyped  plates.  Have  the  plates  nickel- 
typed.* 

In  colorwork  with  black,  where  both  forms  are  to  be 
printed  on  the  same  press,  run  the  black  first,  if  possible, 
and  use  transparent  colors.  This  saves  registering  the  black 
for  position  and  then  taking  the  form  off  again. 

Do  not  run  transparent  yellow  over  black,  however.  It  is 
too  near  white  in  value  and  makes  the  black  appear  gray. 

Do  not  expect  to  get  a  delicate  tint  from  zinc  plates  if  the 
tint  is  made  from  white,  as  the  zinc  plates  discolor  the  white, 
especially  when  they  are  new.  If  you  expect  to  use  zinc 
plates  on  delicate  tints,  have  them  nickeltyped. 

Do  not  run  vignettes  over  tints.  The  roughness  of  the 
surface  of  the  tint  causes  the  vignette  to  wear. 

Do  not  run  any  color  you  happen  to  have  on  hand  for  out- 
door work  or  where  the  job  is  to  be  exposed  to  light.  Most 
printing-inks  are  not  permanent  for  more  than  thirty  days' 
exposure.  Ask  the  inkman  for  special  colors  for  work  of 
this  kind. 

Be  careful  in  printing  labels  for  a  product  which  is 
strongly  alkaline,  as  strong  alkali  will  destroy  most  colors. 
Ask  the  inkman  for  alkali  inks  and  test  them  yourself  by 
dipping  a  printed  sample  into  a  three-per-cent  solution  of 
caustic  potash.  If  the  color  runs,  it  is  not  alkali-proof.  The 
paste  used  in  sticking  on  the  labels  will  also  cause  many 

*  Note. —  The  action  of  mercuric  sulphid  on  copper  is  due  to  a  chemical  decomposition. 
The  sulphur  ion  of  mercuric  sulphid  has  a  greater  affinity  for  copper  than  for  mercury,  and 
it,  therefore,  leaves  the  mercury  and  unites  with  the  copper,  forming  copper  sulphid,  a  black 
substance,  which  dulls  the  vermilion  color  as  well  as  gradually  destroying  the  face  of  the 
electrotype.  It  is  best  to  avoid  using  vermilion  at  all,  on  account  of  its  poor  laying  qual- 
ities ;    instead  use  flaming  scarlet. 

121 


COLOR   AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

colors  to  run,  especially  reds.  An  alkali-proof  ink  will  not 
be  affected  by  this  paste,  but  more  inks  are  paste-proof  than 
alkali-proof,  among  them  many  possessing  better  laying 
qualities. 

Inks  for  bread  labels  also  should  be  specifically  ordered, 
as  baking  destroys  the  color. 

Alcohol-proof  inks  are  sold  for  use  on  paper  where  it  is 
covered  with  celluloid  by  dipping  it  in  a  celluloid  solvent 
and  then  pressing  the  celluloid  against  it. 

The  waste  in  inks  properly  kept  in  cans  is  less  than  in 
tube  inks.  Do  not  order  tubes,  as  the  heavy-bodied  inks  can 
not  be  put  up  in  this  manner. 

Never  put  water  on  top  of  an  ink  to  keep  it  from  skin- 
ning. It  causes  the  ink  to  congeal  and  become  lumpy,  espe- 
cially at  the  bottom  of  the  container.  Each  time  the  press- 
man takes  out  some  ink  he  forces  some  of  the  water  down 
into  the  cavity  made  by  the  ink-knife,  so  that  little  bubbles 
of  water  become  incorporated  with  the  ink. 

Each  time  an  ink  is  taken  from  the  can,  see  that  the  top 
is  evened  off  and  the  oiled  paper  replaced.  If  the  ink  is  not 
to  be  used  again  for  some  time  it  may  be  covered  with  lin- 
seed oil  or  petrolatum  and  the  can  banded  as  when  delivered. 

Use  old  and  hard  rollers  for  running  copying-ink,  and 
sponge  them  with  warm  water  before  putting  them  on  the 
press.  If  the  copying-ink  is  too  heavy,  use  glycerin  to  reduce 
it.  The  suction  of  rollers  may  be  killed  by  sprinkling  them 
with  powdered  alum.  Try  and  keep  a  set  of  rollers  for  each 
color,  but  if  this  is  not  possible,  spirits  of  wine  or  denatured 
alcohol  is  a  good  cleanser.  The  printers  who  do  the  best 
work  with  copying-ink  not  only  have  separate  rollers  for 
each  color,  but  even  confine  the  work  with  copying-ink  to  one 
or  two  presses,  selecting  those  which  are  easily  washed  up. 
The  "  flying  "  of  copying-ink  may  be  stopped  by  reducing  the 
ink  with  alum  water. 

Imitation  typewriter  letters  require  special  ink,  special 
type  and  must  be  printed  through  silk.  The  old  idea  of 
using  ordinary  ink  and  giving  a  double. impression  is  easily 
detected.  In  fact,  the  production  of  the  imitation  typewriter 
letter  is  a  specialty,  and  the  ordinary  printer  will  find  it  wise 

122 


COLOR  AND   ITS   APPLICATION   TO   PRINTING. 

as  well  as  economical  to  send  this  work  to  the  specialist. 
Even  the  best  work  of  this  kind  is  now  detected  in  most 
cases  —  we  are  looking  for  it. 

Kerosene  is  better  to  use  on  rollers  than  benzin  or  gaso- 
line, as  it  does  not  crack  them  so  much.  Kerosene  rubbed 
on  the  press  keeps  it  from  rusting. 

When  rollers  are  not  in  use,  rub  them  with  petrolatum. 


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University  of  Caiifomia 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LiBRARY  FACILiTY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeies,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  ttte  iilxary 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


jUN  of;  Iba^ 

»EL  CHEMISTRY 


